Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe announced this week that Knoxville Police chief Phil Keith has been selected to help develop a national strategy for the recovery of missing children. Deborah Daniels, United States Assistant Attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs, extended the invitation to Chief Keith.
Ashe said that Chief Keith has long been recognized as a child protection advocate.
“The City of Knoxville continues to receive national attention through the efforts of Chief Keith, said Ashe. “Keith’s commitment to the safety of children has always been a top priority for the department.
Chief Keith is an instructor for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ands has helped develop child recovery plans, or AMBER Alert Plans, for several agencies nationwide. In October, Chief Keith launched the first regional Amber Alert Plan in Tennessee. Currently, more than twenty regional agencies have signed the amber Alert Plan Memo of Understanding with additional agencies coming on board in the next few weeks.
Chief Keith said since the launch of the Knoxville region amber Plan, both the Tri-Cities and Chattanooga areas are now developing plans that will eventually be tied into the current Knoxville plan.
Chief Keith said, “In the near future a new initiative will be launched to develop a statewide child recovery plan. The Knoxville Police Department will be conducting training for agencies in order to promote more regional plans.”
During this week’s meeting in Washington D.C., Chief Keith will be discussing the development of a national strategy for the recovery of missing children.
“It’s an honor to be asked to help develop a nationwide plan that will be used to not only recover a missing child, but also focus on preventing crimes against our children before they occur,” said Keith.
“Children are this country’s most precious resource. No family should ever have to endure the terrible pain of losing a child,” Chief Keith concluded.
It took a federal judge to usher in a rare moment of cooperation between the city and county, but the arrangement appears to be working for now.
This week Sheriff Tim Hutchison and Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith will meet for the second time in less than a month, this time to discuss jail overcrowding. The two have been at odds for years.
All involved agree the new accord comes not only at the urging of U.S. District Court Judge James Jarvis but also as a matter of necessity.
The county runs the jail system, but the Knoxville Police Department makes more than 70 percent of the arrests in Knox County, said District Attorney General Randy Nichols.
Knox County Executive Mike Ragsdale said tackling the county’s long history of jail overcrowding requires the city’s input, and two weeks ago he urged Hutchison to meet with Keith.
That meeting was called to resolve a dispute between the Sheriff’s Office and the Police Department over a decision by the Sheriff’s Office to stop providing the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation with the fingerprints of miscreants arrested by Knoxville police. Jarvis scolded Hutchison for the lapse during a court hearing last month.
A subsequent meeting between Keith and Hutchison opened a line of communication, which Ragsdale is now attempting to parlay into a successful resolution of the overcrowding issue.
This week Keith and Hutchison are scheduled to discuss ways their two departments can reduce the number of people jailed on minor charges.
County officials are due back before Jarvis next month to give the judge an update on the population in the downtown jail, the county’s maximum-security facility.
At least 111 times this year the county has surpassed the 215-inmate population cap that was ordered by Jarvis in 1989.
The judge has made it clear he thinks the county will be building a new jail sooner or later.
For the time being, Ragsdale has said building new jail cells is a last resort. He’s working with Hutchison, Nichols and both state and federal courts to find ways to reduce the downtown prisoner population.
Ragsdale has told county commissioners that adding a maximum security building at the Detention Facility in Northeast Knox County would cost approximately $13 to $15 million.
That’s a much more palatable price tag to commissioners than estimates for a new jail downtown that have run in the $40 million to $50 million range.
Commissioner Thomas “Tank” Strickland thinks a new maximum-security facility is inevitable, saying he can’t see any way around it.
But he said no timetable has been set, partly in order to give officials time to see if other ways can be found to eliminate overcrowding.
One suggestion has been to cite people to court on minor offenses rather than jail them. Nichols has noted that Knox County jails more people on minor offenses than do Shelby and Davidson counties.
Authorities are also reviewing how pre-trial release programs could be used to reduce crowding. Sessions court judges are working on that approach, along with Nichols.
Ragsdale plans to meet next month with the judges to get an update on those efforts and see what else the county can do.
But down the road, commissioners see no long-term solution other than a new maximum-security facility.
“I wish there was a better way, but people don’t want criminals on the street,” Commissioner Mark Cawood said.
Commissioner Larry Stephens said voting for a new jail would be one of the easiest votes he’ll ever cast.
“The last thing I want to do is turn them loose,” he said. “I’ve never been for that option. It’ll be an easy decision for me.”

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