Tennessee SB 9: Public Records - As introduced, states that medical records, law enforcement investigative reports, 911 call recordings, photographs, and any other recordings related to a death are not public records if the investigating law enforcement agency determines that the death was not the result of a crime; makes confidential any body camera footage that includes the interior of a private residence recorded due to investigation of a death, which the law enforcement agency determined not to be the result of a crime. - Amends TCA Title 10 and Title 38.

Bill Text

<BillNo> <Sponsor>

SENATE BILL 9
By Johnson

SB0009
000102
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 10
and Title 38, relative to records.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 38-7-110, is amended by deleting
subsection (c) and substituting:
(c) Subject to subsection (d), the reports of the county medical examiners,
toxicological reports, and autopsy reports shall be public documents. If the law
enforcement agency investigating a death determines, following a death investigation,
that the death was not the result of a crime, then the medical records, law enforcement
investigative reports, 911 call recordings, photographs, and any other recordings related
to the death are not public records and shall not be released by any governmental
agency unless pursuant to a valid court order.
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 10-7-504(u)(1), is amended by
adding the following new subdivision:
(D) The interior of a private residence that was recorded due to the investigation
of a death that was determined by the law enforcement agency not to be the result of a
crime.
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.