After pushback, Nashville council decides to spend city money, not federal dollars, on police Tasers

After facing pushback, Nashville will spend over $3 million from the city’s budget on police Tasers.

The Metro Nashville Police Department wanted almost $6 million for new Tasers and requested it come from the federal COVID relief money the city had been allocated.

The department says the Tasers police have are old and don’t work well for people who are too close or far away in distance.

The White House did give the green light to use pandemic relief money for violence prevention. But city officials got pushback from the community and within the council chambers on what the city’s priorities are for the pandemic money.

So, this week, the council decided to take another route and use the city’s budget. In the middle of each fiscal year, departments get a chance to revisit their budget requests and ask for more money.

The city is only able to spend money from the operating budget for one fiscal year. So, for now, city officials have reduced the amount of money the police will receive.

Metro Council also spent $1.5 million to make Juneteenth a holiday, $100,000 for the Knowles home and $500,000 on homeless performance review and recommendation support.