Knoxville Copwatch

1312 in the 865 🐽 DM reports & sightings of police misconduct

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

WBIR has obtained and released bodycam footage of what happened to David Batts while under KCSO/KPD custody. After ~10 hours in custody, Batts was taken to the hospital where he later died. Warning disturbing content. https://t.co/UXsnuCaDvI

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Crump also represented the family of Anthony Thompson Jr, a student at Austin-East HS who was shot and killed by KPD in 2021.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

DA Charme Allen says no officers will be charged in the death of David Batts. Batts's family has retained Ben Crump, a high-profile attorney who represented the family of George Floyd.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Another man has died on Jan 8 while under KPD and KCSO custody. CO's tased, punched, and used a chemical agent on a man under mental health evaluation & documented as "having a behavioral health" episode. TBI is not investigating the death, and no video footage has been released.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

TELL SHERIFF TOM SPANGLER & HIS CREW TO STOP LURKING KIDS ONLINE!!!!

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

More information has surfaced about the warrant that KCSO obtained to raid a home in South Knoxville, where KCSO shot and killed 18-year-old Daevon Montez Saint-Germain: KCSO has been lurking Instagram accounts of high school students to find information about gangs and drugs

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Cops need to stay off kids' Instagram accounts... beyond what transpired, it's also just kind of creepy.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Another man has died on Jan 8 while under KPD and KCSO custody. CO's tased, punched, and used a chemical agent on a man under mental health evaluation & documented as "having a behavioral health" episode. TBI is not investigating the death, and no video footage has been released.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

KCSO is maintaining that no bodycam footage exists of the killing of 18-year-old Daevon Montez Saint-Germain. KCSO has denied the existence of bodycam footage numerous times in the past, only for footage to magically appear later.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

KCSO implemented bodycams in 2015. It was a 5-year, million dollar program. But now, in 2025, not all officers wear bodycams, and there is no official policy on who has to wear them. And no one other than KCSO has access to bodycam recordings.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Meanwhile the City has just been approved a $28 million budget for new surveillance equipment for KPD.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

KCSO deputies shot and killed an 18 year old high school student on Jan 3. The officers were serving a search warrant while he was asleep in his home. TBI is investigating the shooting. No bodycam footage or details about the warrant have been released yet.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Among the defendants named are Spanky and Jonathan Burgess, the corrections officer who posted the photo.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

KCSO is being sued for $250k after forcing a Muslim woman to remove her hijab for a mugshot, then uploading the mugshot to their public website - a direct violation of both KCSO policy and federal law.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

On Monday morning a KCSO deputy shot and killed Bryan Testerman Jr., a well-known area contractor. Few details have been released as TBI is investigating. This is the 6th KPD/KSCO "officer-involved shooting" to be investigated by TBI this year.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Former KPD officer Dan Roark has plead guilty to federal child sex crimes.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Dan Roark, a KPD officer since 2007, has been arrested and federally charged production of child pornography.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

KCSO policy says that police vehicles responding to calls can not through a red light without "slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation."

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

On 3-14-24, KPD officer Austin Plugge (pictured below) sped through multiple red lights and drove on the wrong side of the road before colliding with another vehicle, causing the other vehicle to flip over. Plugge had been on duty for only about a year at the time of the crash.

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

EastTNStories has obtained and published Plugge's dashcam footage from the time of collision, but were unable to get any record of the emergency call that Plugge alleged he was responding to. Footage: https://t.co/cErT9g2FSl

[Knoxville Copwatch @knoxcopwatch]

Among KCSO's arrests of participants in a peaceful Nakba Day vigil on UT campus was Yassin Terou, owner of Yassin's Falafel House. Terou told Knox News he suffered nerve damage in his hand during the arrest and his heart rate was so elevated that he was checked for a heart attack

[Angela Dennis ✍🏽 @AngelaDWrites]

NEW: Yassin Terou of @Yassin_Falafel shared his encounter with police with me during his arrest last night at the University of Tennessee. Terou received the 2018 Peace Award from the Rotary Club of Knoxville and he was named the Knoxville News Sentinel Person of the Year in 2018. His restaurant was named the "Nicest Place in America" in 2018 by Reader's Digest. Terou is a refugee from war-torn Syria and earned his American citizenship on 2020.

https://t.co/LShoOwvC0a