Report: Officers broke rules handcuffing elementary students

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — Six of the 10 officers involved in arresting elementary students at a school in Tennessee violated their department's policies, an internal police investigation determined.

Murfreesboro Police Chief Karl Durr said the case prompted police to respond to the community's concerns with reforms, including giving officers the option to handle juvenile offenders informally, through their parents. The department also is developing a new policy for issuing citations to juveniles instead of the court-mandated practice of arresting all of them, he said.

Murfreesboro police arrested four children at Hobgood Elementary School and took them away — two in handcuffs — to a juvenile detention center in April, accusing them of being involved in some off-campus bullying weeks before. One handcuffed girl was arrested falsely, because no one double-checked her name against the juvenile delinquency petitions obtained by the school's assigned officer.

http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Report-6-officers-in-students-arrests-violated-10808301.php