Nashville Mayor John Cooper this week released the names of five finalists for the city’s next police chief.
This, according to a press release that members of Cooper’s staff published on the Metro Government’s website.
According to that press release, Metro Human Resources and a special search review committee named the following finalists:
• John Drake, who currently serves as Nashville’s interim police chief and has served on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department for 32 years.
• Troy Gay, who currently serves as chief of staff for the Austin Police Department.
• Darryl McSwain, who serves as the chief of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police for the past two years.
• Larry Scirotto, the former assistant chief of professional standards with the Pittsburgh Police Department.
• Kristen Ziman, the chief of Illinois’ second-largest police department, Aurora. She became Aurora’s first female police chief in 2016.
Ziman seems to support social justice causes, going by many of her tweets. Earlier this year she said she believes systemic racism is a problem in law enforcement. She also said police officials should hire more women as a way to reform.
The search review committee, according to the Metro Government’s press release, includes:
• Deborah Faulkner, chief of the Franklin Police Department
• Jill Fitcheard, executive director of Nashville’s Community Oversight Board
• Mark Gwyn, former Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director
• Torry Johnson, former district attorney general of Metro Nashville and Davidson County
• Diane Lance, director of the Metro Nashville Office of Family Safety
As The Tennessee Star reported in August, former Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson vacated his position much sooner than he previously stated he would — without explaining. Left-wing activists and Metro Council members pushed for either Anderson to resign or for Cooper to fire him.
As reported, members of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee also called on Anderson to resign. In particular, ACLU members expressed frustration with Anderson’s alleged refusal to collaborate with the Community Oversight Board, which was established in 2018. This, after the deaths of Jocques Clemmons and Daniel Hambrick. The board has independent authority to investigate allegations of misconduct against the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Cooper has said he will use former President Barack Obama’s principles on 21st Century Policing to guide him. Those principles, among other things, warn against “overly aggressive law enforcement strategies” and encourage a diverse workforce that reflects community demographics.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Metro Nashville Police Car” by nashville.gov.
“Ziman seems to support social justice causes, going by many of her tweets. Earlier this year she said she believes systemic racism is a problem in law enforcement.”
The problem with police has noting to do with the made up ‘systemic racism’. The problem is that a bunch of frat boys (and girls) don’t have any accountability within their respective departments. They hide behind the blue line of silence, as they turn their head to their colleague’s wrong doings. And those wrong doings….they are against EVERY person, not just people of color.
Ignorant statements like this really tee me off.
” Those principles…encourage a diverse workforce that reflects community demographics.”
Then why are all of his short list candidates, except one, from other states?