Last summer, a former Metro Nashville Police Department sex crimes detective told local reporters, activists and officials that a group of current and former employees claimed they had been mistreated because of their race or gender. The allegations ranged from racist epithets uttered by co-workers to workplace sexual assault.
Since those accusations first came to light in August 2020, WPLN News and APM Reports have been working to investigate their claims.
More: Read or listen to our full investigation here.
We have reviewed thousands of pages of public records and a decade’s worth of disciplinary data. Reporters have also interviewed more than 20 current and former MNPD employees, both sworn and civilian.
Here are three key takeaways from our investigation:
Police described a two-track system
Many of the current and former employees we spoke with said the department often protects police accused of bad behavior, if they’re in good graces with the top brass. But those who challenge the status quo, they say, are ostracized, punished more severely or forced out — especially women and people of color. They say there’s little room for complaints or differences of opinion in a department that is 75% male and 77% white.
Minority employees accused of wrongdoing are punished more severely than white ones
In the past decade, non-white employees who were investigated for alleged policy violations faced higher rates of severe discipline — suspension, demotion and/or termination — than their white colleagues. While 20% of disciplinary investigations into white employees ended in severe punishment, about 25% of investigations into Latino employees and 31% of those into Black employees did.
Even when WPLN News and APM Reports looked at the outcomes of disciplinary investigations for comparable infractions, non-white employees still faced severe discipline at higher rates than white ones.
The gap was largest for Black women
Black female employees who were investigated for policy violations were suspended, demoted and/or terminated at more than twice the rate of both white men and women, at 41%.
More: How We Reported Behind the Blue Wall
You can find our full investigation at wpln.org/behindthebluewall or listen to the podcast version by searching “WPLN News Investigates” on any podcasting app.
This story was produced as part of APM Reports’ public media accountability initiative, which supports investigative reporting at local media outlets around the country. Support also came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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