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Podcast bonus: 11 children are arrested and Murfreesboro’s new police chief asks ‘What did I step into?’

Pablo Delcan
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Karl Durr arrived in Rutherford County from Eugene, Oregon, in spring of 2016. He had been hired as the new police chief of Murfreesboro, the county’s largest city.

As an outsider, there was a chance he would shake some things up.

But less than two weeks after he started, while he was still furnishing his office and learning people’s names, officers from his department arrested 11 Black school children for not stepping in to stop a fight.

When Durr discovers what, and who, is behind the arrests, he takes swift action. But he also makes a political enemy in the process.

This audio story is a podcast bonus for “The Kids of Rutherford County.” 

Filed Under: WPLN News

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Meribah Knight, Senior Reporter/Producer of Special Projects

Meribah Knight is a senior reporter and producer at Nashville Public Radio. She’s the host and creator of the Peabody Award-winning podcast, The Promise as well as Serial’s recent podcast The Kids of Rutherford County.

Her reporting on race and inequality in public schools prompted a wholesale shift in enrollment and attitudes toward school choice in one Nashville neighborhood. And her reporting on the juvenile justice system in Rutherford County, Tenn., led to the retirement of its juvenile judge and new oversight of its juvenile detention center.

Knight has received numerous national awards for her reporting, including the George Foster Peabody Award and the George Polk Award. Knight was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the Goldsmith Award, and twice a finalist for a National Magazine Award. Knight received her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

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