Tennessee House Bill HB1019

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/5/25
• Refer: 2/10/25

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 10, Chapter 7, relative to confidential records.

Summary

HB1019 amends Tennessee’s public records law to make certain personal information of specified public safety, justice, and revenue-related employees confidential upon written request. The bill covers active and former sworn state and local law enforcement officers, correctional and correction probation officers, certain Department of Children’s Services investigators, revenue-collection personnel, judges and court staff, district attorneys general, and public defenders. For those individuals, home addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and official or work-related photographs would no longer be public records once a request is filed with the relevant agency. The bill also sets out a process for local governments to designate an office or person to receive confidentiality requests and notify affected departments. It preserves access for court orders, subpoenas, and active law enforcement investigations, and requires redaction of protected information from otherwise public records whenever possible without blocking access to the rest of a record.

Impact

HB1019 would narrow Tennessee’s public records disclosure requirements by creating a confidentiality option for specified categories of public employees and officials. It would amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 10, Chapter 7, Section 10-7-504, and require state and local agencies to withhold or redact listed personal identifiers after receiving a written request from the covered individual. The bill affects agencies that maintain personnel or identifying records for law enforcement, corrections, child welfare investigators, revenue collectors, judicial officers and staff, district attorneys general, and public defenders.

Sentiment

No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate or opposition in the supplied materials. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to be a privacy and safety-oriented records exemption for public employees who may face heightened personal risk because of their duties. The absence of recorded votes or discussion prevents a reliable assessment of legislative support or controversy.

Contention

The main policy tension in HB1019 is between protecting the personal safety and privacy of covered public employees and preserving public access to government records. Supporters would likely favor shielding home addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and photographs from disclosure for officials and employees who may be targets because of their work. Potential concerns could come from open-government advocates or records custodians worried about added administrative burdens, the scope of the covered positions, and the need to ensure that confidentiality does not unnecessarily limit access to otherwise public records.