Top two officials in Department of Safety step down
Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips resigned from the post effective immediately, and Deputy Commissioner Tom Moore announced his retirement, Bredesen said.
“Over my years of travel across this state, I’ve met a lot of troopers ? men and women who are honorable and capable,” Bredesen said. “These hardworking men and women deserve a department as good as they are, and this is a first step toward making sure that happens.”
Bredesen swore in current Transportation Commissioner Jerry Nicely to take Phillips’ place for 60 days. The Safety Department oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the state’s top traffic enforcement agency.
The Highway Patrol has been under fire recently amid allegations of political favoritism and mismanagement, prompting Bredesen’s order last week for background checks of the patrol’s 855 commissioned officers.
The background checks showed that 41 troopers and staffers had criminal or driving violation histories. The charges ranged in severity and included aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
Phillips met with the governor for 45 minutes Friday, at which point Bredesen accepted his resignation.
“I think he was almost mortified” by the results of the background checks, Bredesen said.
“What (Phillips) basically said is: ‘If you tell me to charge ahead and go fix these things, I’ll do my best, but I think you probably need a fresh management team here,'” Bredesen said.
Bredesen has requested recommendations from the TBI and from his legal counsel on the fate of the Highway Patrol staffers flagged by the report.
“Some of them will be nothing, and we will say ‘go and sin no more,'” he said. “Others will be more serious, and they’ll require some sort of action.”
The leadership changes at the Department of Safety follow this week’s resignation of the commander of the Highway Patrol, Col. Lynn Pitts, who was forced to step down Tuesday after he allegedly violated state law by trying to purchase a boat seized by troopers and put up for sale as surplus state property.
“This has been awful for me personally,” Bredesen said. “I take great pride in running good departments.”
Bredesen acknowledged that his attention may have been more focused on pressing issues like the state budget and TennCare.
“I’m guilty of not paying enough attention to this department and what was going on,” Bredesen said.
Bredesen said Nicely will bring much-needed management expertise to the department.
“One of the issues in our department, which is being addressed, is that there’s nothing particularly set up in the training of a trooper to work up through the ranks and become an expert in personnel, or finance or systems,” Bredesen said. “And I think Jerry will bring to that a kind of perspective and expertise to make these sort of changes.”
Nicely will also be asked to shape a new management team at the Highway Patrol, Bredesen said.
“I do want, in the long term, to have professional law enforcement people in these positions, and Jerry’s job is to take these 60 days to put that together for me,” he said.
Nicely, who was asked to take the post about four hours before the press conference, said “It’s a challenge, but I look forward to it.”
Phillips, a former director of the state Law Enforcement Training Academy and commander of the Highway Patrol, was appointed safety commissioner when Bredesen took office in 2003.
“After 42 years in law enforcement, my experiences at both local and state agencies have afforded me many opportunities,” Phillips wrote in his resignation letter to Bredesen. “I thank you for the confidence you have placed in me and for your support of my leadership during my tenure as Commissioner.”
Besides the highway patrol, the Department of Safety manages the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement group, which enforces rules requiring the safe operation of interstate trucks and other vehicles, and issues driver’s licenses and vehicle titles to motorists.