(The Center Square) – A bill that would establish a database of people who have received two convictions for domestic abuse is back before Tennessee lawmakers again.
The proposed database is compared to the state’s sex offender registry, according to the fiscal note for Senate Bill 324/House Bill 1200.
The bill is named after Savanna Puckett, a 22-year-old sheriff’s deputy from Robertson County who was murdered by an estranged boyfriend in January 2022. After her death, her family learned the man had prior domestic violence-related convictions, said Kimberly Dodson, Savanna’s mother, who testified by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Wednesday.
“Why would you not put someone like this evil man on a registry? Why should this information not be made public?” asked Kimberly Dodson, Savanna’s mother, in her testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Wednesday. “I understand cost seems to be an issue but how do you put a dollar amount on someone’s life?”
The cost was the barrier to the bill in the 2024 session of the General Assembly, said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Sabi “Doc” Kumar, R-Springfield.
The database would require four additional positions within the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to maintain the database at a cost of more than $400,000 a year. Those required to register would be required to pay $150. Local courts would keep $50 and the bureau would receive $100. The revenue estimates in future years would be just over $60,000 for the bureau and just over $30,000 for the local courts based on the estimated number of offenders who would be required to register, according to the fiscal note.
However, the TBI could run into the same problems it has with people on the sex offender registry.
“Actual payments related to fees for the sexual offender registry is only approximately 33% of what is owed due to offenders being indigent and various other reasons,” the bill’s fiscal note said. “It is assumed the fees for this registry will follow the same collection trends.”
The bill was given a do-pass recommendation by the House Judiciary Subcommittee and moved to the full Judiciary Committee. The Senate version of the bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
