A 61-page complaint against the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) by a retired officer was obtained in full by 99.7 WTN radio host Brian Wilson and published on his website Thursday afternoon.
Wilson interviewed the complaint’s author — former MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson — Thursday on his afternoon drive time radio show.
WTN’s Brian Wilson: You mentioned that there was an investigation into the Covenant Manifesto leaks that came out. Some of the documents got leaked to the public. There was an investigation. Were any active officers found to have committed that leak?
Former MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson: No, from the information that was gathered, the best we could determine it was actually a prior employee, who no longer worked for the Department. Despite that, though, the, one of the teams at the center of that, where many members were interviewed, they were actually brought into a meeting where they were told good news from Chief Drake, that none of them were responsible for the leak, and then told bad news by another assistant chief that they were all off the team.
Wilson: So they didn’t do anything wrong, but they were, that unit was disbanded, right?
Davidson: That’s-that’s my understanding, yes sir. There was nothing determined to have been a violation of policy, and yet they were disbanded and reassigned.
Wilson: Do you have any, any guidance or any thoughts, or do you have any inside knowledge about where that investigation stands? Because we hear it’s still open
Davidson: I don’t, I’m not privy to some of the active criminal aspects of it. I know there has been a search warrant served. One of the practitioner’s offices, I think home as well, regarding some documentation. I’m a little skeptical that it’s active, open, and actually being worked. And I don’t know if it was, why it hasn’t already been presented to DA Funk to go ahead and see about an indictment on that individual in question. I think there’s some smoke and mirrors there.
In the redacted complaint provided to The Tennessee Star Thursday afternoon after the Wilson interview, Davidson, who worked in the police department’s Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), alleged that Deputy Chief Chris Gilder and Assistant Chief Mike Hagar were “principally” involved in crafting a state law passed in 2023 that banned “community oversight boards [COB],” which are civilian government boards overseeing police officer activity. Davidson also alleged that Gilder and Hagar did this with Police Chief John Drake’s knowledge.
“Do you have confidence in Chief Drake?” Wilson asked Davidson (pictured above, right) in the Thursday interview.
“I have to say, unfortunately, no, I’ve lost confidence in him and other leadership in the department to do what’s right for both the city and the people in the departments,” Davidson said.
Davidson claimed other members of MNPD leadership knew about Gilder (pictured above, left) and Hagar’s alleged involvement in crafting the law and that OPA Director Kathy Morante gave Gilder an award for it “in front of nearly the entire OPA division” after the law was passed.
Davidson did not give details about Gilder’s and Hagar’s alleged secret collaboration with state lawmakers other than that communications between the two officers and lawmakers were “kept off official records.”
The former lieutenant said the law in question stripped Nashville’s now-inactive COB of “the ability to engage in meaningful oversight.”
“The new [legislation] decreases the ability of the COB to hold the MNPD accountable and decreases the [attendant] workload on the individuals who helped with the legislation,” Davidson said in the complaint.
Because of Gilder’s and Hagar’s alleged roles in creating the law that abolished the COB, Davidson concluded that “MNPD’s actions should be reviewed to see if they constituted a violation of a ‘home rule’ and actually resulted in a passage of a law designed to target Nashville’s COB.”
The Tennessee Star previously reported on significant friction between the COB and MNPD, causing MNPD to become less effective upon the COB’s creation.
The COB pursued a number of far-Left priorities, like recommending hiring MNPD personnel based on racial and gender diversity and advocating for police to be monitored by members of minority groups.
Additionally, the COB unknowingly allowed a convicted felon with unrestored voting rights to serve as a member but also rejected prominent political science scholar Carol Swain from membership because of her conservative political views.
Davidson also alleged that Hagar (pictured above, middle), in particular, engaged in biased treatment of employees, “enabled and perpetuated harm,” and did not effectively handle disciplinary matters.
Wilson asked Davidson whether he thought MNPD takes sexual harassment cases within the department seriously.
“No, I don’t think so,” Davidson said. He went on to claim that MNPD does not practice its zero-tolerance policy against discrimination and sexual harassment.
“An officer was given 10 suspension days instead of being terminated,” Davidson said. “But on the front end, these individuals were not treated as if the department was truly zero tolerance.”
Metro Legal Attorney Nicki Eke said during a Tuesday meeting of the Community Review Board about the complaint (CRB) that the OPA is actively investigating the complaint, The Star previously reported. MNPD has not addressed a majority of the allegations publicly.
Drake addressed Davidson’s allegations that the training of recruited officers had been reduced over time. Drake stated that MNPD recruit officers exceed the state-mandated requirement of 488 training hours.
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Matthew Giffin is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Matthew on X/Twitter.
Photo “Garet Davidson” by Garet Davidson. Photos “MNPD Assistant Chief Mike Hagar” and “MNPD Deputy Chief Chris Gilder” by Nashville.gov. Background Photo “Nashville City Hall” by Luckiewiki. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The State law abolishing Community Oversight Boards is a good thing. COB is more political than independent & is really designed to allow the Mayor to run the Police Dept.
The Police Department can only be as ethical & effective as the Mayor, who appoints the Chief of Police & the COB.
DEI (DIVERSITY, EQUITY INCLUSION ) is now driving the hiring process & the training requirements for our MEN IN BLUE.
BLUE MAYOR = POOR POLICE FORCE
We are going backwards in America. DEI is just another form of lowering standards & weakening the effectiveness of protecting our community.
Training requirements have been reduced so more people who are substandard can be hired to “protect” the community, & who will follow like sheep rules & regs that are not in our best interest.
As a woman, I would feel safer having strong well trained men responding to rape & domestic violence calls.
We used to have two cops per car. But Leaders who really want weak cops, want to reduce the ability to Prevent Crime.
I want the best & the brightest to be selected to protect this community. With DEI, you get the Police hirees who check the boxes the LEFT uses to destroy everything good…the Boxes like Color, Sex. Trans, & dumb.
The Police Officers lost their ability to have input on these policies & procedures, when Phil Bredesen was elected Mayor. He issued an EO allowing all Metro Employees to live outside Davidson County. This was something the FOP asked for to get their support in his election.
Sounds good but what it actually did was reduce the people who work in Metro from having any voice in the way Metro runs the government. They no longer could vote for anyone; they no longer paid taxes, even though it’s the taxpayers that pay their salaries, health & life insurance & pensions; this placed a huge burden on tax payers. NO VOTE …NO POWER.
Bredesen & John Seiganthaler then launched a pressure campaign to put Mandated Term Limits on the Legislative Branch ( the Metro Council), which actually took the power away from the voters, who actually pay the taxes. BAD NEWS FOR NASHVILLE RESIDENTS.
Council members were Lame Ducks & had NO POWER.
We need a State Law preventing Local governments from having Mandatory Term Limits on their Legislative Branch.
VOTING IS TERM LIMITS ACCORDING TO OUR METRO CHARTER as it was written & approved by the People of Nashville, when our Metro Government was formed.
Freddie has a former attorney from Memphis checking this out…..this should be interesting.