April 18, 2000

Chief David Beams
Oak Ridge Police Department
P.O. Box 1
Oak Ridge, TN 37830

RE; "Ride-Alongs"

Dear Chief Beams,

Please see the enclosed letter to the editor by one Susan Arnold Kaplan which appeared at page 7A in The Oak Ridger April 17, 2000. "Ride-along was an eye-opener" (the 5th letter under "Your Views")

This account describes a "ride-along" episode which is representative of the practice. This office has no way of knowing in a given case whether there was a "ride-along" witness accompanying the police.

Our discovery dilemma is that as prosecutors we are often obligated to supply to the defense in each case the names of witnesses and since the police reports do not contain "ride-along" information we cannot reliably comply or know whether there is "Brady Material".

Please list "ride-alongs" on police reports from now on.

We can find no report listing Ms. Kaplan as a witness in any case we know, nor do we have any knowledge of the full scope of this practice in terms of numbers of such episodes. However, we are confident that no "ride-along" witness ever goes on an uneventful trip.

Very truly yours,

James N. Ramsey
District Attorney General

JNR/tg