Tennessee Senate Bill SB2462

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/2/26

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4 and Title 8, relative to district attorneys general.

Summary

SB2462 requires each district attorney general in Tennessee to submit an annual report by March 1 to state leaders and the district attorneys general conference. The report must include aggregate, non-personally identifying data for the prior year, broken down by offense, on the number of indictments filed, cases transferred for pro tem prosecution, and dispositions entered in criminal or circuit court, including dismissals, pretrial diversions, plea agreements, trial outcomes, and sentences imposed. The reports must be made available to the public upon request. The bill also directs clerks of courts with misdemeanor and felony jurisdiction to provide district attorneys general and the district attorneys general conference direct and unlimited access to case management or reporting systems, and to cooperate by providing data and information needed to compile the reports. It expressly states that district attorneys general are not required to use any particular physical or digital system to maintain the data, allowing local flexibility in how the information is collected and organized. The act takes effect July 1, 2026.

Impact

The bill amends Tennessee Code Annotated Sections 8-7-115, 4-1-425(f), and 8-7-314 to create new reporting and data-access obligations related to district attorneys general and court clerks. It expands state-level transparency and data collection requirements for criminal justice outcomes, while preserving local discretion over recordkeeping methods. The practical effect is to standardize annual reporting on prosecutorial activity and court dispositions across judicial districts and to give prosecutors and the district attorneys general conference broad access to court case-management data.

Sentiment

The available committee votes indicate strong support and no recorded opposition: the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended passage with amendment by a 9-0 vote, and the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee also recommended passage. With no committee transcript provided, the overall sentiment appears favorable and procedural rather than contentious, suggesting the bill was viewed as a transparency and data-reporting measure with broad agreement.

Contention

The main policy issue in the bill is the scope of access granted to clerks’ case management or reporting systems, which is described as “direct and unlimited access” for district attorneys general and the district attorneys general conference. That language could raise concerns about administrative burden, data security, or system access boundaries, although no recorded committee debate is available here. Another possible point of discussion is the balance between statewide reporting uniformity and local flexibility, since the bill requires specific data but says prosecutors need not use any designated system to collect it.