The Community Oversight Board (COB) approved a report issuing use of force consent decree recommendations. Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) will work with the COB to implement these recommendations.
Mayor John Cooper tasked members within the Community Oversight Board to explore use of force policies following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Cooper acted in response to President Barack Obama’s Reimagining Policing Pledge to review and reform use of force policies that reflect the “systemic racism within law enforcement.”
The board issued seven recommendations for MNPD. Other states’ use of force consent decrees informed the COB’s report.
The COB asked that MNPD make changes to its current infrastructure. Recommendations included a comprehensive review of the consistency between policy and training, more training on conducting use of force investigations, and a three-tiered classification system for all use of force above handcuffing.
The board also desired that the demographics relating to race, ethnicity, sex, location, and age for different uses of force be collected and stored in an interactive dashboard updated monthly or quarterly.
The COB requested for MNPD to create two new teams specifically for mental health-related calls and a use of force investigations.
In 2018, voters approved a referendum to create the COB. The intent of the board was to provide oversight for MNPD.
As The Tennessee Star reported previously, the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) didn’t support creation of the COB. Nashville’s previous mayor, David Briley, expressed concern over the costliness and politicization that the COB could incur.
Prior to the COB, individuals could file complaints with an officer’s supervisor, the district or U.S. attorney’s office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
In the year following creation of the COB, tensions thickened between Metro police and the board. COB’s initial executive director resigned after seven months.
A previous policy report presented this past spring asked that MNPD cease asking individuals about their immigration and citizenship status. Following the Floyd riots, the COB issued another policy report to ban chokeholds and strangleholds, require de-escalation, and ban shooting at moving vehicles.
The COB told The Star that its leadership wouldn’t be available for comment prior to press time.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Metro Nashville Police Car” by nashville.gov.
COB, what an appropriate abbreviation. Why don’t you and Cooper go and play stick the COB where the sun don’t shine. COB is a racist organization the provokes hate and creates black fatigue. I am sick of hearing about diversity and fairness, Commiecrat BS! With Cooper as king Commie!
And the out of touch COB and mayor just keep on giving. The creation of the COB was a major step in turning Nashville into a Seattle look alike. Way to go folks.
So, pass plans, policies and laws for something that has nothing to do with Nashville. What could possibly go wrong?
Hey Cooper you idiot 0bama is not President, you are such a liberal loser.
Hey Mayor Cooper, just for the record, in case you didn’t get the memo, keep in mind that it’s “former” President Barack Obama’s Reimagining Policing Pledge. And since when do current elected officials “follow” the directives from “former” politicians, especially ones who did absolutely NOTHING to help resolve the issues at hand!
But while you’re at it, maybe you should dust off the old doctrines from some of your other favorite heroes, like of Senator Robert Byrd, Governor George Wallace, or President FDR. Your words say one thing but your actions, well they send an entirely different message! And it’s gonna catch up with you!
The police have brought this misery upon themselves. Presumably good cops looking the other way while bad cops abuse their power, protecting each other behind their blue wall of silence. This has opened the door for a shameless power grab by the commie loving, social justice liberals
Full disclosure. I’m a white guy who has been on the receiving end of Metro police’s brutality. Even though it was a case of mistaken identity, I totally submitted. Then the female cop stood on my head and a male cop kicked me in the ribs and groin while four other officers stood there and watched.
I’m not for dismantling the police department. We need police officers…period! But this kind of garbage needs to stop.
For those of you that don’t know, a “consent degree” is a legal agreement where neither side admits guilt. In this case MNPD and the “Black Community” agree that the police, which aren’t guilty of anything, will need to make changes for the COB to be happy.
I don’t remember when that “Reimagining Policing Pledge” happened. Was Barry still President at the time? If not, please refer to him as FORMER President Obama. By law, only one person has the title “President of the United States”, and that person is NOT currently Barack Obama.