NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Metro police officials say the department is “dismayed” by claims it’s not cooperating with the Community Oversight Board.
The COB met for a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss difficulties in obtaining records requests from Metro Police on serious incidents. During that meeting, the board referenced the recent shooting on Broadway in which an officer shot a driver who drove into him before hitting several cars.
Read more: Community Oversight Board discusses latest officer-involved shooting, public record requests
Executive Director William Weeden said he put in requests to obtain surveillance video of the incident but ran into road blocks due to the board not having subpoena powers.
He also said he has asked for the board to be included in some kind of notification alert with Metro Police whenever a serious situation occurs.
Metro police responded to those claims, saying Chief Steve Anderson has met with Weeden four times since May 1. At an August meeting, the department says Anderson “strongly” encouraged Weeden to establish a notification process with the Department of Emergency Communications.
The department says the COB wants incident and arrests reports dating back 18 years, which they say equals more than 13 million pages of reports that would need to be reviewed and possibly redacted. They estimated that would take one person 150 years to do and cost $10 million.
“The MNPD has worked to respond to COB requests and address issues presented by Mr. Weeden. It will continue to do so. The MNPD will leave it to Mr. Weeden and his staff to help board members understand everything the MNPD has done and is doing,” Metro police said in a statement. Read more here.
The department says some of those requests were declined due to “statutory considerations” but others have either been fulfilled or are still under review.
Board members hope to have a public meeting Wednesday, September 18 with Mayor-elect John Cooper and Police Chief Steve Anderson.
More documents provide by Metro Police:
Email from William Weeden to Police Chief Steve Anderson
Email from William Weeden to police
Roll call training documents re: COB (August 9 and September 1)
