Latest news with #WhileBlack
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
MNPD looking to hire traffic enforcement, SROs to fill gap in officer shortage
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Metro Nashville Police Department is looking to hire new officers with and without experience. While the MNPD is looking to grow the force with new officers, it's also hoping to move experienced officers into open lateral positions, including school resource officers and traffic enforcement positions. MNPD arrests students, including 12-year-old, for allegedly making unrelated threats of mass violence 'We are looking for somebody to be able to step in and say, 'I am able to tell the difference between a noncrime fighting stop and just a regular traffic stop,'' said Jeff Eslick, council member for District 11. For years, the growing city of Nashville has felt the impacts of an officer shortage, like many other Tennessee cities. As of Friday, Metro Police has 1,556 officers and is approved to hire about 100 more. 'People want better control of the roads,' Eslick explained. 'You see people driving recklessly, passing down the middle lane, and then there is also some really bad wrecks.' Last week, a resolution to improve traffic enforcement was passed by Metro Council. This comes after a 91% decrease in Nashville traffic stops between 2015 and 2023, following a report called 'Driving While Black,' which found MNPD disproportionately stopped Black drivers from 2011 to 2015. 'We need to make sure for the mass of people that we are creating a safe place,' Eslick said. 'I think there is a balance. We have dash cams, body cams, we have a community review board.' Antioch High School to have third permanent school resource officer, per MNPD According to the MNPD's job posting, the traffic division has openings in the aggressive/impaired driving unit, motorcycle officer program, and traffic crash investigator unit. 'I'm hoping some of the people that look for these lateral positions really have a passion for safety,' Eslick said. 'Maybe this is somebody who has been a different position but has noticed the increase in fatalities and the brazenness of people to drive down the middle lane or to weave throughout traffic as if it was some type of race.' However, they are also looking to expand their school resource officer program, adding more SROs to elementary schools. '[We are] really looking for a candidate who really stands out in terms of having that good moral compass, really has good communication skills, and can easily connect with adolescents,' said Mo Canady with the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO). According to an MNPD spokesperson, Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) have two SROs in high schools, and as of last week, Antioch High School added a third SRO. Meanwhile, middle schools in the district each have one SRO, including seven elementary schools. 'You have the opportunity to impact adolescents in a really powerful way,' Canady said. 'This is about going in and really being an advocate for the youth in your community, helping them to become the people that they are going to become as adults,' he added. | READ MORE | A Tennessee state lawmaker reintroduced a bill for the 2025 legislature that would allow public charter schools to hire honorable discharged veterans and retired law enforcement officers to serve as SROs, pushing for closing the gap. 'We've worked incredibly hard in the General Assembly to keep students safe in Tennessee classrooms. School resource officers are invaluable to achieving this goal, but there are unfortunately many schools across the state that are still without an officer. This proposal will open the role up to experienced and qualified individuals who have honorably served their nation and communities, helping alleviate the SRO shortage of approximately 500 while prioritizing school security. Keeping students safe will continue to be a priority for Tennessee Republicans.' Rep. Tim Rudd 'Sometimes when retired officers can be brought in, especially to fill some of those gaps in elementary schools, it's working really well,' Canady explained. 'Now we have got to make sure we have some really good perimeters around this. They still need to be the right selection.' Pay for the lateral job openings range from $73,000 to $89,000 annually. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nashville Council asks police, NDOT for improved traffic enforcement plans
The Metro Nashville Council has asked police and transportation officials to craft plans for improved traffic enforcement — while avoiding past patterns of racial bias — by the end of March. At last week's Metro Council meeting, the group adopted a resolution urging the Metro Nashville Police Department to improve traffic enforcement by prioritizing reckless driving, DUI, speeding and distracted driving, and the Nashville Department of Transportation to 'enhance the physical environment for everyone using the road through engineering.' An amendment also approved at the meeting calls on MNPD to fill vacancies in its traffic division. The resolution gives MNPD and NDOT until March 31 to fulfill Metro Council's requests. On MNPD's end, that will mean providing the council with a plan for improved traffic enforcement, 'including a review of non-police traffic enforcement options,' and any other recommendations. NDOT is being asked to provide an update on recommendations to further enhance its Neighborhood Streets Traffic Calming Program. In approving the resolution, Metro Council resumed a conversation that over the past decade has sought to find balance between road safety and addressing racially biased enforcement patterns. The resolution references the 2016 'Driving While Black' report prepared by nonprofit Gideon's Army, which found that MNPD officers stopped more Black drivers than the total number of Black residents in Nashville from 2011 to 2015. It also refers to the 2018 Policing Project study which found no evidence high-frequency stops did anything to prevent crime and did find racial disparities in MNPD's traffic stops, particularly for 'nonmoving violations' like broken taillights and expired tags. The resolution calls for MNPD to 'avoid returning to the biased enforcement highlighted by the Driving While Black report and the Policing Project.' The first version of the resolution, introduced by Jeff Eslick representing District 11, didn't reference those studies. Instead, they were part of the substitute resolution introduced by Kyonzté Toombs representing District 2, which was what the group ultimately voted to approve. Both versions reference the steep drop in traffic stops by MNPD officers since 2018. According to the resolution, the number of stops dropped from 200,546 in 2018 to less than 56,000 in 2019, then dropped even further to less than 26,000 in 2022. But Toombs' substitute also notes that MNPD's recent efforts to focus on more dangerous traffic violations resulted in a slight uptick to approximately 30,000 stops in 2023. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Council asks police, NDOT for improved traffic enforcement
