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State lawmakers say they plan to support bills to reform policing, include de-escalation training

State lawmakers said they were aiming to reform law enforcement after the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Note: This article was updated from its original version to correct the spelling of Mckenzie to McKenzie.

Footage of the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis helped revive a statewide push for police reform recently. 

State Rep. and the newly chosen head of the Tennessee Black Caucus Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) said he will support comprehensive bills that could help change policing.

Nichols, an unarmed Black man, died after five Black Memphis police officers beat him following a traffic stop, according to authorities.

"It's just horrific. It was just an evil action," Sen. Becky Duncan Massey (R - Knoxville) said. "Basically, there's no two ways around it."

"We're not valuing human lives equally across the board, especially when it comes to policing in the African American community," McKenzie said.

He said he was once a victim of aggressive policing, and said that most of the time the way police interact with minority communities is different.

"When the police get out of the car and see and interview a man of color or a man of the majority community — it's just different," McKenzie said. "Cultural differences — we have to acknowledge them and try to figure out how to communicate better."

He said police reform should include officer training on de-escalation techniques. Phil Keith, the former Knoxville chief of police, said he also believes police reform should include efforts to hold police departments more accountable. 

"I think accountability has to start with the top, not the bottom. And I think that's a systematic failure we've had in the past," he said.

Keith said he is worried that the death of Tyre Nichols could reflect poorly on law enforcement as a whole, and Massey echoed his sentiment.

"I think anytime something like this happens, you've got to look at the root cause and see where mistakes can be corrected," she said.

McKenzie said that he is working on legislation that wouldn't completely change policing across the state.

"The legislation that I'm going to support — we're not taking the fangs out of the police force, but we're taking the brutality out of the police force," he said.

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