State records and city filings show that more than a dozen Millington police officers do not have complete documentation for their 2025 in-service training, and the department’s lead training instructor has landed in the middle of a state review. The problem surfaced as the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards & Training Commission met in Nashville and asked Millington to seek waivers while the paperwork gets untangled.
According to the Tennessee POST agenda, commissioners reviewed a packet of in-service waiver requests from Millington and saw a roster of officers who had not met 2025 requirements on paper. The agenda notes that Millington requested waivers so the department could stay in compliance with POST guidelines while those individual training gaps are sorted out.
As reported by LocalMemphis/ABC24, the department’s General Departmental Instructor, Lt. Bryan Childress, is under investigation after a state reviewer found holes in training paperwork, including missing files from previous years. Millington Public Safety Director Gary Graves told the outlet, “We appreciate the POST Commission’s consideration and the unanimous approval of our waiver request; all affected officers are compliant.”
Which officers were flagged
The POST agenda spells out which Millington officers are short on hours. It lists Lt. Bryan Childress as 33 hours short, Robert Dehority as 36.5 hours short and Jeffery Gipson as 40 hours short. Several other officers are marked as missing the required eight-hour firearms requalification. The document also notes that waivers are being requested to keep the department in compliance, but any officer receiving a waiver will not qualify for the 2025 salary supplement unless they make up the missing training hours. The full roster and hour totals appear in the agenda from Tennessee POST.
Why the training numbers matter
POST sets statewide in-service standards each year, including core mandates. For 2025, the schedule calls for roughly 40 hours of basic in-service work and specifies an eight-hour firearms requalification among the required courses. Missing those hours can affect an officer’s pay, certification status and overall readiness, which is why agencies sometimes ask for administrative waivers while they reconcile their records. The full curriculum and hour counts are listed in the approved 2025 training catalog from Tennessee POST.
Local context and next steps
Millington’s adopted FY 2026 budget shows a police department with dozens of sworn positions and roughly 33 POST-certified slots, so the documentation gaps affect a significant share of the agency’s certified staff. Local reporting says state documents even led to a submission involving Lt. Childress that could move toward a decertification hearing earlier this year, and POST holds both informal and formal decertification hearings as part of its disciplinary process. City of Millington records and the commission’s meeting materials from Tennessee POST outline the staffing levels and procedural backdrop.
City officials say they are working with state investigators and have asked the commission for temporary waivers while training records are corrected. Any next steps, including required make-up training, internal discipline or certification action, will depend on the outcome of the state’s review and any formal hearings that follow.
