Bonus: How one police chief struggled to change the system

The Promise

Nashville Public Radio

Society & Culture

4.9 • 777 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Karl Durr arrived in Rutherford County from Eugene, Oregon, in spring of 2016. He had been hired as the new police chief of Murfreesboro, the county’s largest city.

As an outsider, there was a chance he would shake some things up.

But less than two weeks after he started, while he was still furnishing his office and learning people’s names, officers from his department arrested 11 Black school children for not stepping in to stop a fight.

When Durr discovers what, and who, is behind the arrests, he takes swift action. But he also makes a political enemy in the process.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for following our feed for WPLN's The Promise and our special presentation of Maribbon
0:08.6	night's new four-part series, The Kids of Rutherford County. You can keep an eye on this feed as
0:14.3	the partnership continues between serial productions, the New York Times, ProPublica, and
0:19.3	Nashville Public Radio.
0:26.3	Today, Marraber brings you a bonus voice you won't hear in the podcast,
0:28.6	Murphy's borough's former police chief.
0:32.8	He found that change did not come easy in Rutherford County.
0:35.8	Well, good morning to you.
0:45.8	Welcome in to the Action Line from WGNS. This morning we are talking about the Murfreesboro Police Department and so much happening here in our community.
0:56.2	Carl Durr arrived from Oregon in the spring of 2016. He'd been hired on as the new police chief, an outsider, coming in to shake some things up.
0:59.2	We have our new police chief with us.
0:59.7	Good morning.
1:01.1	Good morning. Good to have you with us.
1:02.1	Oh, it's great being here.
1:06.9	Now, is this warmer than, is it Eugene, Oregon?
1:08.5	Is that where you were from originally? Yeah, I came from Eugene.
1:09.8	Less than two weeks after he started, while he was still settling in, officers from his
1:14.5	department arrested 11 black kids for watching a fight, some as young as eight.
1:20.3	And those arrests would quickly grab national attention and eventually shine a very bright
1:25.9	light on the county.
1:27.4	But I was like, oh my gosh, what is going on here?
1:31.3	What did I step into?
	...

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