Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 20 and Title 4, Chapter 7.

This bill requires the following: (1) The commissioner of safety, in consultation with the commissioner of human resources, to ensure that a minimum of six Tennessee highway patrol officers are allocated to a county designated as a tier 3 or tier 4 enhancement county that has a size greater than 600 square miles and a population greater than 20,000 but less than 50,000; (2) Officers to be allocated only to fill vacant positions, and if there are not enough vacant positions in the county, then the commissioner of safety, in consultation with the commissioner of human resources, must reallocate or shift existing vacant positions across the state to such county; and (3) Of the positions to be filled, one must be for a sergeant position with the remaining being trooper positions, with none of the positions being for a specialized unit. ON MARCH 13, 2023, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 1164, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill to require the commissioner of safety to ensure a minimum of five Tennessee highway patrol officers and one Tennessee high patrol sergeant, instead of six highway patrol officers, are allocated to a county as described in this bill. This amendment clarifies that an allocation of these officers must first fill vacant positions in the specified county and that the allocations cannot be for a specialized unit. This amendment adds that the commissioner is not required to comply with these requirements if the department of safety does not have the funding or vacant positions available, or the positions required by the bill are being used for other purposes within the department of safety and cannot be maintained in the designated county due to the department's need to utilize the positions elsewhere.