A Sumner County jury has convicted former Lawrenceburg police officer Kyle Hunter Scott after video showed him handcuffing a crying 3-year-old boy during what was billed as a scared-straight intervention. The jury found the 23-year-old guilty of assault and attempted official oppression following a two-day trial, and the convictions carry a maximum sentence of 17 months and 29 days in jail.
Prosecutors said video evidence showed Scott, wearing a Lawrenceburg police vest, confronting the crying child, placing him on his stomach, and handcuffing him, according to WZTV. Scott and his girlfriend had planned the intervention with the boy's mother, the station reports. As the child reached for his mother, Scott carried the boy from the apartment.
During the encounter, Scott told the boy to stop resisting, per the same account. The child had been diagnosed with autism just months before the incident took place.
Department and State Response
Department and State Response The Lawrenceburg Police Department fired Scott, and the Tennessee Department of Children's Services removed the child from the home, the station's report notes. Judge Dee David Gay is expected to sentence Scott in 2027, according to the article.
Part of a Troubling Pattern Nationally
Scott's case echoes other incidents around the country in which children have been handcuffed or threatened by police as a disciplinary tactic. In Florida, a mother sued local school and police officials after she said they used “scared straight” tactics on her then-8-year-old son, who had special needs, according to Fox News. That lawsuit alleges officers from the Key West Police Department placed the boy in handcuffs at school in 2018 and told him, “You're going to jail.”
Similar episodes have surfaced elsewhere. In Kenton County, Kentucky, an officer was reported to have handcuffed an 8-year-old boy for 15 minutes, as detailed by The Guardian. And in Montgomery County, body-worn camera footage released by police showed two officers loudly berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his school, as reported by The Washington Post.
Those cases are separate incidents and do not establish a broader trend, but they underscore the scrutiny now facing tactics like the one used on the Lawrenceburg child. For now, the Sumner County case awaits sentencing, with the maximum penalty capped at 17 months and 29 days in jail.
