Police Oversight Board Still On Track To Be Completed By End Of Month, Says Metro Council

There are still 150 people in the running for Nashville’s new 11-member police oversight board, which has to be formed by the end of the month. To deal with this volume of applicants, the Metro Council has worked out a plan to hear from all of them.

Nominees  — ranging from former police officers to activists — were asked to answer a set of questions by last week in order to be further considered to serve on the city’s new community oversight board. And most of them followed through.

Vice Mayor Jim Shulman says that’s too much for the council’s rules committee to handle.

“We kind of took a step back and said what’s the best way to do this, to accommodate everybody’s time and to get everybody a chance to be heard,” said Shulman.

Shulman says he divided councilmembers into four groups to handle all the interviews over three days next week. Candidates who miss their interview will be automatically disqualified.

The council plans to confirm board members at their next meeting. But if it’s necessary, Shulman says he has plenty of time to call a special meeting to finish that process.