NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Community Oversight Now is now asking Nashville leaders to do more after allegations of misconduct and harassment in the Metro Nashville Police Department.
Recently, MNPD former Lt. Garet Davidson wrote a 61-page complaint with bombshell claims. They include an allegation that two top department leaders quietly worked with state lawmakers to pass a law to eliminate the Community Oversight Board. The COB used to have the power to investigate police misconduct until the new law.
An independent attorney, Edward Stanton III, has been brought in to investigate the claims.
The Nashville Community Review Board is now in place of the former oversight arm. Community Oversight Now campaigned for the Nashville Community Oversight Board. A referendum established the board with 134,371 votes.
Garet served for two years in Metro's Internal Affairs Division — which they've named the Office of Professional Accountability. Overall, he served in the department for more than a decade before his resignation earlier this year.
From that, activists with Community Oversight Now have made these seven demands of the Nashville mayor's office and Metro Council:
- The Mayor must call for an investigation of MNDP abuses by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
- Chief Chris Gilder, Assistant Chief Mike Hagar, and Don Aaron must be placed on administrative leave until the Stanton investigation is complete. If the allegations are true and supported by a preponderance of the evidence, then they must resign from MNPD.
- All officer-involved shootings during Kathy Morante’s tenure as OPA director must be reopened and subjected to external investigators.
- The Nashville Community Review Board (formerly COB) must be allowed to hire the Brazil Clark law firm as legal counsel. This was tentatively agreed upon to avoid a conflict of interest with Metro Legal, which represents and is closely aligned with MNPD. Currently, Metro Legal is backtracking on this agreement.
- An external review or investigation of Metro Legal’s role in hindering investigations of police misconduct and oversight is needed.
- The establishment of a whistleblower complaint system to give MNPD officers a vehicle for reporting misconduct without fear of retaliation.
The establishment of a strong MOU organized in good-faith between the CRB and MNPD. Currently, there are nearly 50 police misconduct complaints that are being held up because a new MOU has not been signed. The MOU can only move forward if Mayor Freddie O’Connell takes an active role in bringing all the parties together for extensive negotiations.
