Nashville to launch investigation into complaint that police exerted pressure to undermine oversight board

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced an independent investigation Friday following allegations that the Police Department actively promoted the dissolution of the city’s community oversight board, along with a number of other allegations of misconduct.

The complaint was filed earlier this month by Garet Davidson, who retired from Metro Nashville Police in January. He worked for two years in the police’s Office of Professional Accountability, the city’s internal affairs department.

A redacted copy of the police department’s 61-page complaint contains a long list of allegations, ranging from accusations that senior personnel performed better in investigations, that leadership was overly involved in internal investigations, that officers intentionally failed to keep records to avoid incriminating paper trails, that training for new recruits was unreasonably reduced and that there was no zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment and discrimination.

“I believe it is important – and I believe the public expects it – that we demonstrate impartiality when it comes to serious allegations about conduct at Metro. And it is important to conduct an independent investigation into the recent allegations made by former MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson and filed with the MNPD’s Office of Professional Accountability,” O’Connell said in a statement Friday.

The investigation is being led by former U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton, who was chief federal prosecutor in West Tennessee during the Obama administration.

Stanton was recently appointed by Republican Governor Bill Lee to review the Tennessee Department of Corrections’ lethal injection manual and staffing levels. Stanton’s investigation ultimately found that Tennessee has failed to follow its own lethal injection procedure since its overhaul in 2018, resulting in several executions being carried out without proper testing of the drugs used.

Meanwhile, Nashville police said Friday they would also launch their own investigation into the complaint.

“Regular review of practices and procedures in a large police department such as ours is good for the organization,” Police Chief John Drake said in a statement.

Of the numerous allegations Davidson listed in his complaint, Drake’s statement addressed only the allegation that new officers were not adequately trained.

“The state of Tennessee requires a minimum of 488 hours of training to be certified as a police officer. New officers who complete MNPD basic training receive 893.5 hours of training, 83% more training hours than required by the state,” he said.

But hidden in the sweeping lawsuit are allegations that two high-ranking Nashville police officers worked with Tennessee’s Republican-dominated state legislature to draft a bill that ultimately replaced all community oversight bodies with investigative committees that have no authority to investigate allegations of police misconduct.

Under the new law, which took effect last summer, municipal oversight boards were transformed into “police advisory and review committees,” whose mayor-appointed members have the power only to refer complaints to law enforcement agencies’ internal investigations divisions.

The move comes after Nashville voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of a Community Oversight Board in 2022.

As a reward for dismantling the Community Oversight Board, at least one officer received a “small, laser-engraved, crystal-style award in front of nearly the entire OPA department,” according to Davidson’s complaint.

Davidson also alleged that both officials and lawmakers worked in secret to “undermine local laws to achieve something more favorable” and did so “behind closed doors, with contact with lawmakers presumably not recorded in official records.”

News of the complaint was first made public last week by Nashville’s Community Review Board, the body that replaced the Community Oversight Board.

At that meeting, members discussed the allegations despite the prosecutor’s advice to keep the matter secret. Members expressed frustration with that advice.

Notably, Nashville’s law department has not filed a lawsuit against the state to protect the Community Oversight Board, despite filing several lawsuits challenging newly enacted laws targeting Nashville.