Tullahoma Police Briefing for June 8th, 2026

Tullahoma Police Briefing for Monday June 8th. Discussions include agenda items for tonight's board meeting, the homeless issue, and the ongoing multi-agency investigation into vape store locations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome back to Tellahoma Police Briefing. Today is Monday, June the 8th. I have with me Deputy Chief Jason Kennedy today, and we have Sergeant of Investigations, Jason Maloney, with us as well. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. And big budget time period in the city of Tellahoma, and I'm happy to report nobody is stressed out at all. How's everything going with that right now? I know we're on the second reading that's going to be happening tonight.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Yeah. It's going well. The city administrator Jeff Dameron and the finance director Sue Wilson, you know, they've uh of course they want to give us everything we want, but you know, the city has needs, and we also have to be good stewards of the city's money. Exactly. Um, but it's uh it's going good. Um the big thing was body cameras this year. We had to renew our contract, which we discussed uh a meeting or two ago. Uh that that was a big cost, but uh we actually just got them in two days ago, Lieutenant Henderson actually of uh he's already implemented them. The officers are starting to use them yesterday was the first act. Correct. Um it's it's going good. Uh but yeah, hopefully uh we'll get through the second reading and then towards the end of June when next meeting they'll uh finalize the budget and we'll get ready for the next fiscal year.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Good deal. We've got three items on the agenda that will be mentioned tonight, along with the whole budget uh that's gonna be hopefully passed this evening as well. It's gonna be the second out of three budget uh passings. Before we get into the meat and potatoes of it, I want to thank Sergeant Maloney for coming on with us. And folks, if you live in Tallahoma like I do, you have a great investigations team. And this is one of the guys to think for that, Sergeant Maloney. Um great team. One of the reasons that we have such a high clearance rate uh as far is it's much higher than state average. So uh can you tell us a little bit about the investigations team?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Sure, yeah. We have a uh awesome team upstairs. Um a lot of our uh investigators will work um specialized uh uh cases, uh, do a lot of casework. Great men and women involved. Um my background being a little more narcotics-based. Um uh however when it we had recently, uh it was in the news, obviously, we had a big homicide case, and uh everybody's willing to jump in. I mean, we have hundreds within hundreds of man hours invested into that one case. Uh that's some of the stuff the public typically doesn't see, um, is to pull everybody together and and and having everybody available and everybody's on deck and and and ready to go and put in the hours that it takes to make a good case, uh not just make an arrest. Um many people think when an arrest is made, the case is over. And um up here in CID, uh the case just kind of begins. Exactly. Uh the search warrant process, uh the warrants uh that that that go into these things, I mean you you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of hours invested. So great team, uh great involvement by everybody, and uh yeah, we we are uh definitely uh I'm definitely appreciative of the people we have.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yeah, I I want to mention also that we the these people that y'all come in throughout the day, handle your daily stuff, and I hear you several times, eight, nine o'clock at night, people coming in, going to Nashville, doing the things you have to do. These people are not just clocking in, doing a job and clocking out. Y'all really have some dedicated people in investigations that keep us overall safer here in Tellahoma. That's that's for sure. And I remember you I remember your background as well when you started out with uh narcotics.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I mean it the uh one and the same. Uh so narcotics uh work uh you're essentially on call 24 hours a day. That phone goes off, you're moving. Uh and it's no different upstairs here. Um a lot of these crimes, like you know, the old saying, crime never sleeps. Well, um a lot of those times we have a a good knowledge base up here, and so if patrol gets into an uncomfortable situation, but they call us out. Uh I think we have a pretty good rapport. I mean, I think we always show up. Um, and um that that phone uh is is a constant burden in my life. However, it's a necessary evil with the job, and uh everybody is on call 24 hours a day.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Well, whether you like it or not, y'all uh y'all are always there and you never make anybody in patrol, I know, feel like we're you know being a hindrance. So if you're faking it, you're faking it as well. I'll tell you that. Well, I appreciate it. Most definitely. So thank y'all for everything y'all do. I know you got the whole works up there. You've got uh from uh child abuse investigations, thefts, larcenies. We even have our own um uh sex offender registry. We do, we do. And uh so we y'all cover all the bases, all of them.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

You do you you're uh at any given day, you're you're you know um eligible to get rung up for any call that runs the entire gambling.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Well, again, thank y'all for what you do. Uh going over some of the agenda items on the budget that we have coming up. Again, this will be spoken about this evening at the Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting that will be at 5 30. Our first thing on the agenda is the request from the police department to approve the annual software agreement with ISOMS and MM Microsystems. Uh, Deputy Chief, can you tell us what ISOMS is?

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Yeah, ISOMS is a web-based RMS. RMS is our report management system. Um, I think it's approximately $13,000 a year we have to uh pay. That not only includes our software for our reports, you know, any type of report that we do, it goes into ISOMS, but that that's also a maintenance agreement. Um so throughout the year, if we have any issues, we can call them. That covers the cost. If we do not go into this contract, I think uh Rosie Barnes, our uh uh main secretary, says it's about four hundred dollars an hour for them to assist us if we have some type of issue. Uh so that's the cost of that. That's you know, we have to have it. That's how we report to Tibers, which is state, you know, we have to report to TBI all of our crimes, and that's how we manage it.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

It's not back in the old days where we can do pen to paper and call it a report. Everything has to be completely organized, structured. Yes. That's one of the hardest things that as a patrol officer it is to do to make sure you got all the structures in there correctly because it'll be knocked back to us, but this is how we report to the TBI who ultimately reports back to the FBI. That's correct. So asking for $13,000 for this coverage period between July the 1st and June the 30th.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Again, that's a recurring cost every year we have to pay.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Okay. Uh another item is the police department to approve the purchase of one 2023 Chevrolet Blazer from Russell Barnett of Winchester for $24,000 using the SRO grant fund. So this is grant.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Yeah, yes. Uh back in 2023, Governor Lee uh started this grant for every municipality, every county after the coveting uh school shoot in Nashville. Uh the state gives $75,000 to each school that qualifies, uh, which is a huge thing for our city, our county, and our kids. Um $75,000 can be used for um equipment and it also can be used for uh the officers' payment, which we use for them being paid. Uh the city still has to pay more than $75,000 just for health benefits and different things. But we applied last year for another SRO at the alternative school, which is also encompasses the little cats, I believe it's called, that's right. And the state awarded us another $75,000 for that school. We didn't get awarded the money until about November of last year. And then Corey Wallace is our SRO there. Uh so when he started, we still had some money left. And if we don't use that money, we have to give it back to the state. Um the SROs, they probably drive well, it's not probably, most of them do drive some of the worst cars in the fleet with a hundred thousand plus miles, a lot of maintenance issues. So I worked with finance, uh, Chief Sons um was just like, hey, let's try to get him a vehicle we can use. So that that vehicle will only be used at the alternative school. It won't go to patrol. It's only used at the alternative school. And again, it doesn't cost Teloma City any money, it's a state grant money, and that's what that's how that's being utilized.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

And during the summertime, I know a lot of the SROs come out and work patrol.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

So and that now this isn't your typical patrol vehicle. Okay. He can use that vehicle for patrol, but probably what we'll do if he you know works an overtime shift or if he uh works during the summer, we'll assign him a patrol vehicle during that time.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Uh just that way it's uh pursuit and also a patrol vehicle. This will be just for him to drive to and from school and also to be seen parked at the alternative school and it'll be barked and who's over RSROs.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Is it investigations that it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Uh currently falls under uh Lieutenant uh Farrell. Okay. So it it's under the CID division.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Okay. Well that that that's interesting. How do is it how how do we schedule that out?

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Just like just y'all are just make all the overseers or yeah, essentially uh typically they report directly to the uh lieutenant, uh, and then you have uh Willie, uh Sergeant Young, and uh you have uh Corporal Blackburn who do a great job uh you know essentially mitigating anything before it really gets to uh the lieutenant level. Um but but they are the boots on the ground, if you will. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Yeah. All right, and then third third uh budget uh item we are going to be doing tonight for the police department is going to be request to approve and authorize to begin the process application for the state of Tennessee School Resource Officer grant and execute required documents to grant awards $75,000 per qualified school to ensure the SRO uh there's an SRO present at each school, and I think you just hit on that.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah, it's pretty much the same thing I just said. Uh the only thing I'll add to it, there's an MOU, which is a mutual aid agreement pretty much, uh, that we have to go into with the state of Tennessee and also the school system. In order for us to apply for that grant, then MOU has to be signed by the chief of police and also the director of schools. Uh so any type of MOU or any type of contract we go into, we have to get the board of mayor and altarman to approve it. So that's why it's going before the board.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

But everything is grant. So yeah, so that that that's good. Nothing, nothing coming out uh from the taxpayers. So that's you know, and it's it's excellent. We've got this protection in the schools. So uh great to know that. Plus, and plus all of this is on top of the uh budget uh that is hopefully going to be uh passed tonight for the second round as well. Any more about the budget you need to speak about, or we can um no, I just I like I said the the aldermen and the mayor, they've got a hard job to do.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Yes. I mean they know um, you know, the employees have a hard job. I mean, but they also have to think about the city and what's best for the city.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Got to work together. Yes, we do not have an infinite amount of bucks, we don't have that money tree back there. No, so we just gotta do the best we can with what we got, most definitely. Uh a couple of points to bring up before we uh end the program for today, and um there's been a lot of talk here lately about the homeless population that we've had come up. And I know um I think a lot of uh of our homeless population, I think a lot of them are you know don't cause any problems, but unfortunately we have those small percentages that do. So y'all want to kind of mention what's going on with that right now?

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Uh I'll I'll I'll explain what we've done in the past few weeks and I'll let Sergeant Maloney talk about any type of crime that he saw. But uh a few weeks ago, myself, Chief Sons, and you uh went out to the uh the wood line there behind Kroger's and took some pictures. Uh I guess there's been a lot of uh concern from the public and also the aldermen want to know about the homeless population, what they can and can't do. Um we went out there through the woods, we took pictures, uh uh you created a nice PowerPoint. Um I believe Chief Sons gave it to the city administrator, which he then sent it to the aldermen just to show what we have. Um we also you know did some research on some laws about uh the homeless, you know, panhandling what they can and can't do. We've uh provided that information to the board so they have they can make a good decision on how to go forward. But again, it it it's here. Um, you know, COVID, I I blame for a lot of it. The cost of everything has went sky high, you know, housing. And it's hard for people to get on their feet. So I mean, you know, I I understand. You know, there's a lot of people, you know, a lot of people think, you know, you say homeless person, you have in your idea what a homeless person is. But in g in fact, there's some people that I know firsthand, they work 40 hours a week, they just can't afford a home. You know, they're living in their car, they're but they're still working, and um it's a it's an unfortunate deal, but you know, we're we're trying our best to assist anyway. Um a lot of churches gives out give out uh goodie bags. We give to our patrol officers to give to them, you know, during the wintertime our churches open up their doors for them uh a place to sleep. You know, we have blankets and different things we'll give to them, but it's it's unfortunate, but it's uh very very unfortunate.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

And of course we can make a whole program on, you know, what causes all of it and what's you know the what's the issues with it. But um I I I know Telahoma steps up because like you mentioned, we have area churches, and this is a program that gets together every winter time and they open up their doors, and this is a lot of work on the churches because they have to make sure someone's there, they have to make sure supplies are there, they feed them, and uh I mean they do an awful lot. So Telahoma has stepped up to try to uh alleviate the problem, but it's a nationwide problem. So, you know, there's no magic wand that's being waved here anywhere. Is and we're I just you know, I love the heart that we have here in this city. Uh, would you want to speak on some of the issues we're having right now with criminal-wise?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Crime-wise, um, you know, I you know, I I I can't really put a number on the crime. Uh most of the uh homeless calls we're getting, we're getting a ton of calls for service for these people, these individuals. Uh there's a few here that are local. Um, and um we you know essentially they're unhoused, uh, whether it be substance abuse or uh financial, who who knows? Um you will see an increase, and we always do uh right around Bonnaroo. You'll see you'll see an increase. So uh that's when you're gonna see more people outside of uh of Walmarts. Uh retail theft typically goes up with the arrival of Bonnaroo. Uh it's mostly tents, camping products, things like that. Uh that inevitably will go up. Um as well uh as we get into the cooler months. Um I know last year uh there was about 20 of us. We trekked through the woods all out here, we covered the whole city. I think they picked the coldest day of the country. It was about 17 degrees. And we walked miles to get an accurate headcount. Um and these weren't just homeless, they were also considered unhoused. We have a lot of we also have a population you got to think about that um uh for one reason or other gets evicted. Uh they don't have a living quarters of their own. Um and so so those people get counted as well. And there's a lot of those that uh, you know, they may be in Coffee County jail, they may lose their apartment, their residence while they're in there. Uh when they get out, they have nowhere to go. So these people uh essentially are jumping from couch to couch, if you will, to stay out of the elements, and and and those people fall under that window of homeless as well. So um it's not just the ones you see on the street here. There's it's it's definitely uh um there's there's a bigger number there than what you're seeing.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

And Rocky, going back to Tullahoma, you know, having a a big heart, uh Damrins restaurant, um, I found out last or this year I was in Coffee County Leadership, and one of the things we had to do, we had to volunteer somewhere, you know. And uh my wife and I actually both went dameron's every Tuesday, I believe, at 4 30. They open the doors and no questions asked, and they give you a free meal. And uh and I just thought that was awesome what Damrins Restaurant does, a little cool place.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

And speaking of Damrins, uh it's not just Tuesday nights that they do that. I know that they feed people during the week. Uh they have a shower now. It's a uh that they have on the location where people can come and take a shower that need to take one. Uh the damrons have been just absolutely, I mean, excellent. They take donations of clothing and things, and they just put it out there all the time. They're always throwing food out, clothes out for people that need it. And that's just a perfect example of the heart that we have here in Tallahoma, is it is the Damrins. So thank you also for bringing that up. We had a sobriety uh checkpoint on May 29th, and one of the biggest questions that we got on that was if you're having a sobriety checkpoint, why in the world would you announce where you are? I understand that. I mean, if you I guess it was trying to be a surprise thing at one time, but now we're like announcing to the world that, hey, the the uh the sobriety checkpoint's here and we're having signs here and all like that. Why do we do that?

SPEAKER_03 18:07

So it's it's the law. Um twenty plus years ago when I got in law enforcement, um on a Friday night, we'd be uh sitting around and be like, hey, let's go do a roadblock. We find a state trooper and we go set up a roadblock somewhere. And that's all we needed uh was a trooper. Um and that's how we did it. Uh probably 10 plus years ago there was some case law that came out uh where now you have to announce it. Um and so we're just we're going by the law, that's why you have to announce it. Um I think it has to be ten days prior. Uh you have to do it in some type of public uh form and newspaper. You know, we put I think it was in the newspaper, we put it on social media. Um so yeah, everybody knew. Um, but that's why we do it, it's because it's it's the law.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Right. And so just so everybody knows it's uh it that's that law has changed, and it has to do if you want to do a little reading on it yourself, it has to do with Fourth Amendment implications. We can't pull people over just because, and so that's why the announcements are there, and uh that's why we do what we do. Last thing on our production notes, uh Sergeant Maloney, I'll talk to you about real quick, and I don't know if you can speak much about it or not, but I know there's been a lot of talk recently about the multi-agency uh vaping store sweeps that's been happening with uh I think Coffee County, Manchester, and Tallahoma. Uh without giving anything away that you can't, can you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Sure, actually, it kind of ties in with your uh sobriety checkpoint that which you just hit on uh as well. Um we heard a lot of flack about why give them this piece of paper notifying them. Um that also ties back with making a good case, not just an arrest. Um we warned them it's an ongoing issue we've had uh during the school year. Uh the SROs obviously work with us. Um I don't know the total numbers on vapes, but it's astonishing within city limits, and it's getting younger. Um there was vapes taken from elementary schools this year. Oh wow. So the parents reach out to us. Um and these laws didn't have a whole lot of teeth in them. Agriculture was over this, the Department of Agriculture. Uh we were making calls and we didn't get we weren't getting what we wanted the traction. Uh so working with the county of Manchester, we decided to do our own. Um uh not an impromptu sting, of course, because uh we we want to make it a good case. Going back to that, uh we forewarned them uh this process, there's not an end date on it. Uh so this is gonna go on for a month, um, you know, if not for the foreseeable future uh this year. We have a good partner with ABC now, uh THC, the vape products, they will fall under ABC. That's recently switched here. Um but it's more for prosecution, right? We want to get a make a good case, and uh we want them uh whatever their criminal justice system um uh decides, we want to bring them the best case possible to tie in with your sobriety. Why do we let them know? The DA's office asks us to send this letter out, which which we hand delivered to every store in town. Um uh but back to the the need of it. Um we get, like I said, dozens of calls a week from parents. Uh they find these things in their kids' backpack, um, they want something done. Um I myself have children. Um we we we don't want them going down that course, of course. When they're 21 years old, you're an adult, make your decisions. Um, but a lot of these places are also making um a lot of money off of vulnerable youth selling these products for thirty, forty, fifty dollars. Um and uh we're gonna be kind of working the vape sector, uh, which also ties in here. Some recent law changes in July with the THC. Right. The THCA. A lot of stuff we've gotten, commandeered, uh through investigative means, we've sent off to the TBI lab. And it's 0.3% THC. When we send this stuff off to the lab, it's testing in the 40%, 50%, 60% THC. Way out of range. It's way out of range. This stuff is illegal. It can't be sold. Again, so it just gives us a little more teeth along those lines. As well, some of the new upcoming law changes, Kratom is now banned as of July 1. And another thing off the topic of the vapes, I'm super excited about is these Bitcoin kiosks. It's a whole nother rabbit hole we could explore with the fraud. We talk about vulnerable populations and the fraud. These Bitcoin machines are a uh they're they're they're they're a nuisance for a lot of people. It's not a whole other topic, but as of July 1, it is now illegal to own, operate, um, or to have one inside your store. So that is the new legislation. Uh, believe it was House Bill 2505. I have some notes in here. Um, but but I'm super excited about that one.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

The vaping stuff is is is all new anyway, because I think all this happened started back in 2019 with that bill change with Hemp. And it did. And so we're we're talking about seven years of litigation here that we're trying to get catch up to.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

And it's a strong money lobby. There's a lot of money behind this. So you I tell you to follow the money, there's a lot of litigation. Uh there's a lot of uh um we'll say there's there there's there's a lot of special interest groups that have a lot of money put into this cannabis. Uh so if we make a local arrest on THC, um they're gonna fight these things, they're gonna be backed. Uh and again, goes in hand in hand with given the pre-warning of we're coming around, you know this is legal, you've been warned multiple times, uh, we're not gonna put up with it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

And it's good that they I mean, because I mean if it if a store owner is here and it's wanting to be legitimate, wanting to follow the law, well now we have this warning. Now I can follow, you know, w along with the rules. And nobody can really say that they didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

And I do have to touch on that. The last one we did, we we did one of these about six months ago. We don't uh uh we didn't publicly broadcast that one. But I want to say the the the rate on the vapes, uh, we are at a hundred percent. Everybody we sent in the store was denied. Um and even if you do, uh it's typically maybe one or two stores that we have an issue with. Um and right now I think we're up to do we have currently 10 uh 10 vape stores, but uh vapes are sold at gas stations, they're sold everywhere. I'm talking about specialty shops. I think we're up we have ten currently, um and and and not one of them sold to a miner.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

So that's that's good. That's good. I I will say this, you know, you said 2019, but also I want to let the public know this is something that started years and years before that. You know, you had the synthetic like K2, Molly plant food, different things like that. And you know, and TBI, you know, they tried to pass laws, things got uh out, you know, again got outlawed, and then people were just changing oxygen molecules in this so it would be legal. So this is something that's been going on for probably 15 years. Um but I I do want to give credit to our city board members. You know, they did pass the ordinance, I believe. Um I think Sergeant Maloney said we have 10 vape shops once they start going out of business, or if you know if they just sell it. We're gonna have an ordinance where we can only have a limited amount in the city, almost like liquor stores. And also give kudos to the state of Tennessee. You know, ABC years ago of course ABCs, they're over liquor, and we know how regulatory liquor is. And they used to be over marijuana too, and they didn't. So now they're giving the vape stuff to ABC and they're gonna regulate it, you know, and and I and I think it's great because there's you know, you're gonna have to answer to what it what you sell and what you do. So um, you know, w the state, the city, you know, we know there's a problem and we're trying to address it.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

Exactly. Trying to handle everything that we can because we for here in Oklahoma, we handle we handle everything that comes through our door. Guys, thank y'all so much. That's all I have. Do you have anything else y'all want to add?

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Oh thanks for inviting me on.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Oh, absolutely, Sergeant. Thank you. We could we could do a whole we could do a whole thing just on you right now talking about what y'all go through all the time. You got a quite an office back there. I'm gonna write a book on that. Well, I'll I'll be the first to buy it. Thank y'all for joining us on Tellahoma Police Briefing. Coming up later on this evening is the Telehoma City Board meeting.