Sullivan County Commission approves body cameras for sheriff's office

BLOUNTVILLE — The Sullivan County Commission approved new body cameras for the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office during Thursday's meeting.The commission also discussed support for the new airline project at Tri-Cities Airport, led by a resolution sponsored by Commissioner Matt Slagle.Body camerasSheriff Jeff Cassidy and Captain Jeremiah Lane showed the commission the body cameras, describing their features and how they work."These will mount onto the front of the uniform, whether it's the traditional shirt, top belt or vest carrier," Lane said. "Operation is simple. The battery is built-in, like a strong cell phone or laptop, and the camera has four microphones, two speakers and an LED screen that indicates activation."Lane said the cameras can record continuously in buffer mode, capturing 30 seconds of footage before activation. Officers can activate the cameras manually or automatically, such as when a Taser is unholstered. The data from the cameras will upload at the end of each shift and will be categorized by a case number.Commissioner Larry Crawford asked how long the battery can operate when fully charged."About 13 hours," Lane said. "Our contract that we will go into with Axon says if there's a problem that comes up with the battery, we'll be able to send it back to Axon, and they will send us a replacement. With the body cams, they will refurbish those or replace those at 30 months and again at 60 months."Commissioner Mark Ireson voiced his support, referencing the resolution which states "use of a law enforcement body cameras have been proven to improve officer safety, increase evidence quality, reduce civilian complaints, reduce agency liability and improve public trust."The commission approved the five-year contract with Axon at a total cost of $736,241.62. First-year funding will come from federal American Rescue Plan Act allocations.Commission revisits airline projectThe commission discussed a new resolution sponsored by Matt Slagle that supports new passenger air service at the Tri-Cities Airport that seeks to find other third party options outside of BRDIGE, a regional organization.Last month, the commission approved $240,000 in funding for BRIDGE, broken down to $10,000 per month, to support a new, yet-to-be-announced airline at Tri-Cities Airport.Slagle said he would like the commission to consider "other options" and said the resolution passed last month "has not matured to the point of final consideration."Commissioner Ireson disagreed and said after speaking with the airport, it has been determined they are restricted by federal law to attract new airlines themselves. Ireson also said he spoke to Clay Walker, CEO of NETWORKS, and that Walker declined the project, stating it wasn't in his area of expertise and that he wanted to "stay in his lane."Ireson said he also spoke to Alicia Phelps with the Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association, who said they didn't have the capacity to take on the project."The airline wants to come. The airport can't do it. The airport needs a third party, and one party stepped up and said they would do it," Ireson told Slagle. "That's the only thing that happened. You're trying to find a smoking gun, and there is no smoking gun. There was one group that was willing to do this. They said thank you, and they moved forward. That's it."Other commissioners, however, expressed concerns about the resolution's clarity and process. Commissioner David Akard criticized the lack of a memorandum of understanding with BRIDGE and questioned the timing of payments and contingency plans if the airline withdraws."This feels rushed," Akard said. "We're committing taxpayer money without understanding the full scope of the agreement."He echoed the same concerns he raised at the commission's work session, stating the resolution isn't clear on when BRIDGE would collect the money, how they would do it and what would happen if the airline decides not to come.Commissioner Cheryl Harvey said she believes the issue is not whether the commission supports getting new air service but rather the responsibility of handling taxpayers money and understanding how transactions of the funding would work."It's important to go back and look at other third party options," she said."It's been said that we didn't really discuss things when the resolution was first brought up but that's not true," Ireson said. "We said, 'what happens if this falls apart?' And we said 'nothing'. The money doesn't go anywhere. It fails if the airline doesn't come."Commissioner Andrew Cross asked Slagle if the county would release the funding to BRIDGE if it is determined they are the only viable third party for the airline project."I think it just has to be voted on by this board if this resolution passes," Slagle answered. "If there's an organization selected in this commission, it needs to be approved at that time. So I think to maybe answer your question a little differently, I think we need to get formal responses from those that might be willing to participate as a third party."Commissioner Zane Vanover said although the previous resolution may need some tweaking for the sake of clarity, it would be a disappointment if the commission "would even take a chance on jeopardizing this resolution.""This is a good thing for Sullivan County. Does anybody have any doubt about that?" Vanover said. "I mean, if it goes to provision, if we have two new airlines, we have two new direct flights. We have people coming in there for more people in our county, more hotel motel money, more sales tax money. That's a good thing for Sullivan County. No one can dispute that."Slagle moved his resolution to first reading.Commissioner comments on Matthew Hawn rulingAt the end of the meeting, Commissioner Joe Carr made an announcement, criticizing Chancellor Katie Priester's recent decision to overturn the dismissal of Matthew Hawn, a Sullivan Central High School teacher fired over complaints about his Contemporary Affairs class discussions on white privilege."I'm very excited because I thought you had to go all the way to Africa to hunt rhinos, but it turns out if you wait until 2030, you can actually hunt one right here in Sullivan County," Carr said. "That's because I will be knocking on the door of every registered Republican in 2030 and telling them that Katie Priester forced our school system to hire back a communist, and not just any communist, but a communist that forced his students to read an article that said their white skin is, and I quote, an existential danger, not just to our country, but to the world and all of humanity."Carr called for Priester to resign, and that anyone who runs against her will receive his full support.Carr told the Times News Monday that he believes many people lack the full context of the article that Hawn assigned his students to read."I read the 60-page ruling from Priester and noticed that the article wasn't quoted from once, which I think is important. A lot of people are missing that context," Carr said.The article Carr refers to is "The First White President: The Foundation of Donald Trump's Presidency is the Negation of Barack Obama's Legacy" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, published by The Atlantic in 2017."There are things in that article that, if you repeated them in a commission meeting or a BMA meeting or a school board meeting, you would get gaveled and thrown out of there," Carr said. "But he had our school kids reading that.""I think most people should just take a look at that article and see for themselves, make their own determination," Carr added.Carr also noted that in the ruling, Hawn is quoted as saying white privilege is an undisputed fact, a statement Carr said he "fundamentally disagrees with.""The article uses the word 'whiteness' 20 times, and there are several sections where, if you were to swap 'blackness' in for 'whiteness,' you would think that you were reading an article from David Duke," Carr said.Carr said he believed the county commission was the best forum for making his statements about Priester.