With racial protests taking place throughout the country following the alleged murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Knoxville Police Chief Aaron Fuller took time to discuss with the Knoxville City Council Monday, what his department does and how they are trained to help prevent incidents like the George Flloyd case. According to Chief Fuller the policies his department already has in place should help prevent a situation that occurred in Minneapolis. He says his department’s Use of Force Policy has a clause titled Duty to Intercede which means if a Knoxville officer sees another officer using excessive force they have a duty to stop that officer as well as a duty to report that behavior to a supervisor. He says luckily in Knoxville there are not a lot of Use of Force situations. In addition to the Duty to Intercede clause, he says the use of choke holds is already banned by the department, something Chief Fuller says his department is ahead of the game on. 

Chief Fuller tells KNIA/KRLS News his officers receive training to help them protect and serve all people in the Knoxville Community the best way possible. He says some of the training his officers take part in, includes implicit bias training, de-escalation training, mental health training and much more. 

To hear the complete interview with Chief Fuller, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.