Permanent records of transactions – Bills of sales – Inspections – Contraband subject to forfeiture – Rights of claimants – Sale of forfeited property

(a) (A) For purposes of a conventionally operated vehicle, every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.Manufacturer: means every person engaged in the business of constructing or assembling vehicles of a type required to be registered at an established place of business in this state. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101Person: means a natural person, firm, copartnership, association, corporation, or an engaged ADS. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101Police officer: means every officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for violations of traffic regulations. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Special mobile equipment: means every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including farm tractors, road construction or maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, well-boring apparatus and concrete mixers. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105Trailer: means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101Vehicle: means every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks. See Tennessee Code 55-8-101written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105(1) Any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of buying or selling used automobile parts shall keep permanent records of transactions of buying or selling engines, transmissions, vehicle bodies, chassis, doors, deck lids, front end clips (fenders and grill), seats, differentials, tires and wheels, steering wheels, automobile radios and automobile tape players, and bumpers. The record must include from whom the item was purchased and the seller’s address and driver license number, and to whom the item was sold and the purchaser’s address and driver license number, as well as the description of the item and any identifying number or numbers. The records must be kept for a period of three (3) years from the date of the transaction and made available to all law enforcement officers for inspection at any reasonable time during business hours without prior notice or the necessity of obtaining a search warrant. (2) Notwithstanding this title to the contrary, any motor vehicle dismantler and recycler that is licensed pursuant to § 55-17-109, and is fully compliant with the reporting requirements of § 55-3-203(c), is not required to keep the records required by subdivision (a)(1), with regard to transactions of selling the parts described. All other required records must be kept. (3) Any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of selling used automobile parts must provide a bill of sale, including the source of the part, when requested by the purchaser of any major component part, in order to comply with § 55-3-206, which requires the inspection and certification of any rebuilt motor vehicle. (4) Any person, firm, or corporation required to keep records by §§ 55-5-106 – 55-5-110 and knowingly failing to do so commits a Class C misdemeanor. (5) For the purpose of locating stolen vehicles, establishing lawful ownership, possession, titling, or registration, any motor vehicle investigator designated by the commissioner of revenue or the commissioner of safety, except as provided in subdivision (a)(6), may inspect any vehicle, whether intact, wrecked, or dismantled, at an automobile dismantler’s lot, salvage lot, or other similar establishment required to keep records under subdivision (a)(1), within this state. (6) Inspection conducted pursuant to subdivision (a)(1), (a)(4), or (a)(5) must be conducted during normal business hours and at a time and in a manner so as to minimize any interference with or delay of business operations. The inspection does not apply to a scrap processor when the scrap processor obtains any vehicle that has been crushed or flattened. “Scrap processor” means any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of buying motor vehicles or motor vehicle parts to process into scr