IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Reporter puts city on administrative notice about easy arrest practices
Notice will make it difficult for Chattanooga to claim qualified immunity when it falsely imprisons and arrests citizens without a warrant who're exercising God-given rights
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 — Investigative reporter David Tulis is putting city government on administrative notice regarding arrest by police under circumstances he says require an arrest warrant. Tulis met with city attorney Phil Noblett on Wednesday to give him a notice regarding Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-7-103 that says officers may make a misdemeanor arrest without a warrant if the offense is a “public offense” or a “breach of the peace threatened.”
Tulis says police and deputies ignore the duties required under the term “public offense” and routinely arrest people “on sight and on the spot.” The law requires an accused be freed if not involved in a public offense. The officer goes to the county jail, drafts a complaint and presents it to the magistrate. The judge’s signature converts a sworn criminal allegation into an arrest warrant, Tulis says. The officer must find, serve and seize the arrestee, he says.
“We have a vast surplus of false imprisonment and false arrest in Chattanooga and Hamilton County because LEOs make on-the-spot arrests and ignore our Tennessee constitution and our federal bill of rights. Arrest is supposed to be time-consuming, awkward — they’re supposed to be procedurally encumbered to make sure no innocent person is arrested, and that the officer has legal immunity if it’s a foozle.”
Tulis, who reports at Eagle Radio Network, is suing Sheriff Austin Garrett and deputy Brandon Bennett over his arrest and jailing Nov. 22, 2023, in a roadside encounter posted on the YouTube Shields of Shame channel. U.S. district court judge Travis McDonough is considering a motion for injunction to require immediate compliance with the law.
“Bennett’s personally on the hook to me because he refused to obey well-known law — despite administrative notice,” Tulis says. “He did the deed to drag me to the jail door in his personal capacity. Y’know, we don’t have bandits anymore. We have cops.”
Tulis has been on a campaign since 2018 to curb police violence and to force local compliance with state and federal law. He says traffic stops are subject to the state administrative procedures act and should not be criminally prosecuted, but heard civilly in the department of safety and homeland security.
David runs a personal nonprofit fighting and mercy ministry. He thanks you for checks sent directly to c/o 10520 Brickhill Lane, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. Also at GiveSendGo.