The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is reportedly more than 100 officers short of its staffing goal, and while the department has increased its numbers in recent years, its efforts were hampered by 76 individuals who either resigned or retired from the police force throughout 2024.
According to a report last week by Nashville Banner, the city’s budget for MNPD authorizes 1,658 officers, but the department is still 104 members short of its maximum police force. It additionally reported that while the department has 52 prospective officers completing the MNPD training academy.
The report stated that 19 of the 76 officers who left the department in 2024 retired from law enforcement, while 57 simply resigned from MNPD.
Among the 57 officers who resigned from the department last year was former MNPD Detective Bobby Roland Samuels Jr., who was the lead detective on the MNPD investigation into the March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological female who revealed an obsession with transgenderism and identified as a biological male named Aiden in a manifesto that was partially published by The Tennessee Star last year.
Samuels’ departure from MNPD was not reported until earlier this month when MNPD Public Affairs Director Don Aaron told The Star the detective left the department after announcing his resignation at the end of 2023 when Samuels stated his desire to move out of state to be closer to the family at the beginning of the following year.
MNPD told The Star that after Samuels left MNPD, “Detective Mathis assumed the lead role then and worked to complete the investigation during 2024,” with Aaron adding that Mathis “has since been authoring the case file while working other homicide cases.”
Samuels is the detective who authored the internal police document “Vandy Psych,” which appeared to summarize Hale’s interactions with mental health professionals and is the detective who led the interview with the killer’s parents and secured a search warrant for the Hale family residence.
The late news of Samuels’ departure came as The Star remains involved in legal action that seeks to compel the release of Hale’s full writings, about 1,000 pages spread over 10 or more journals, from both MNPD and the FBI.
While an appeal was announced last year after an unfavorable decision in the state case, the Department of Justice recently confirmed the FBI is considering a settlement offer from The Star that would see the litigation conclude in exchange for the release of Hale’s writings.
The U.S. Senate is expected to confirm Kash Patel, who President Donald Trump nominated to lead the FBI, sometime this week.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Metro Nashville Police Officer” by Metro Nashville Police Department.Â
Look at it this way.. one less government salary to pay that DOGE won’t have to root out, when they get around to city governments.