Report finds Nashville police more likely to use force against Black and Hispanic people; MNPD disputes data analysis

Nashville’s Community Oversight Board has released a new report that breaks down the use of force by Metro police over the past five years.

The report shows a sharp increase in use of force cases in 2019, and then again in 2022 — spikes that reflect two major policy changes in how officers report use of force incidents. Starting in 2019, officers displaying their firearm was counted as a use of force. Four years later, “soft-empty hand tactics,” which include pain compliance pressure point and holds, were added as well.

Metro Community Oversight Board Metro Community Oversight Board

The report uses this figure to illustrate use of force across racial groups.

The oversight board’s analysis highlighted racial disparities in these cases, particularly inside schools.

The data for 2022 shows that 96% of students who had force used against them by school resource officers were Black, and more than half were female. In those cases, white SRO’s were more likely to use force.

Overall, the board’s analysis found that Black and Hispanic people, both youths and adults, were more likely to be on the receiving end of force from police.

Alisha Haddock, a member of the Community Oversight Board, explained that these findings give the public a broader context for the individual complaints of police misconduct that the board deals with daily.

“These are not just numbers on a paper,” she said.

The report shows that North Nashville, South Nashville and Antioch were the neighborhoods with the most use of force reports. But Haddock says the findings are important for the city as a whole.

“It’s not just for police oversight advocates, for only people who have to deal with over-policing of their communities. This use of force report is for every concerned citizen in Nashville, Davidson County,” she said.

The police department released a response disputing the board’s findings and critiquing their methodology, which argues that the report “leaves the reader with a false narrative or misunderstanding” of MNPD’s use of force over the past five years.

The oversight board will hold a public forum to discuss the findings and the policy changes it suggests at 5 p.m. Aug. 8 at the Bordeaux Library.