No Charges to be Filed Against HCSO Officers in Arrington Incident

The following is a press release from the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office:

On May 23, 2020, five deputies with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) arrested Reginald Arrington Jr. on Old Lee Highway. During the arrest, Mr. Arrington and the deputies became involved in a physical altercation on the side of the road. Mr. Arrington was eventually transported to the county jail for booking. Upon receiving and reviewing body-cam footage from the deputies involved in the incident, Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to investigate the incident. While that was taking place, General Pinkston also contracted with a national use-of-force expert, Emanuel Kapelsohn, to independently review the entire case file.

As a result of those investigations, no charges will be filed against the officers. However, Mr. Kapelsohn and General Pinkston believe this situation could have been prevented with better HCSO training on how to best escort detained subjects.

General Pinkston said there are several factors that lead to the decision not to prosecute. Most importantly, despite repeated efforts by the TBI, Mr. Arrington would never cooperate with the investigation or submit to an interview.  All interview requests were made through his civil lawyers. Mr. Arrington also declined to cooperate or speak with the DA’s office, despite numerous requests that were made through his civil lawyers.

During the investigation, three of the officers involved said that Mr. Arrington tried to reach for a deputy’s service weapon. Despite not being able to see this on any of the dash cam videos, if the officers believed Mr. Arrington was reaching for a weapon, lethal force could have been an option for HCSO deputies against Mr. Arrington. No lethal force was ever used.

With all of these factors taken into consideration, the TBI concluded that the deputies’ use of force was appropriate under the given circumstances. However, the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy and the use-of-force expert strongly concluded that better training is needed for HCSO deputies. If these deputies had received the best training on how to handle handcuffed detainees, that would have prevented some, if not all of this incident.

General Pinkston said this incident should not end here.

“As I said last year when we released the dash-cam videos to the public, what I saw in the videos was troubling,” said Pinkston. “I don’t enjoy ordering investigations into law enforcement agencies, but sometimes it is required. I sincerely hope the sheriff’s office will use the findings in this investigation to improve training so incidents like this do not take place in the future.”

HCSO Chief Deputy Austin Garrett offered the following statement regarding General Pinkston’s findings.

“Earlier today Sheriff Jim Hammond received General Neal Pinkston’s findings and appreciates him providing this information to the HCSO and public,” Chief Deputy Garrett wrote in a press release. “The Sheriff, HCSO executive staff, and Training Division will be reviewing the findings together and once complete will proactively address any issues.

“Shortly after this arrest occurred, Sheriff Hammond ordered an Administrative Review to be conducted to ensure our policies and procedures were followed. Before the findings were released, the HCSO Training Division and leadership had already identified areas of improvement in our Use of Force applications. This resulted in HCSO taking proactive measures that improved on our application of force or response when dealing with handcuffed suspects who display either active or passive resistance while in our custody. This enhanced training has already been included in our 2021 mandatory In-Service Training.

“We encourage the public to comply when dealing with Law Enforcement officers, this alone reduces the likelihood of confrontations. However, we always welcome recommendations as it relates to our training. Every day HCSO deputies go out with the mission of protecting and serving our community, and we are focused on providing our deputies with the best training possible to protect our employees and better serve our community.”