Nashville’s civilian-run police oversight agency says the Metro Nashville Police Department should have punished a now-former captain more harshly after he yelled at a nanny and three children in his backyard last year.
Courtesy Metro Nashville Police Department Metro Nashville Community Oversight wants the police department to make former Captain Jason Reinbold ineligible for rehire.
Jason Reinbold was suspended 11 days for three policy violations in April 2020. The captain was caught on camera cursing at a babysitter and the kids she was watching while they played and ate snacks on a neighborhood bike path that runs behind his home.
Metro Police punished Reinbold for conduct unbecoming of a police officer, profanity and inaccuracies on his timesheet. But an independent investigation by Metro Nashville Community Oversight finds the department should have also disciplined Reinbold for five other infractions, including making false statements, which is grounds for termination at MNPD.
When the police department’s Office of Professional Accountability initially investigated the incident, Reinbold said in two separate interviews that he was not working at the time. However, a review of his timesheet later showed that he was clocked in.
“The OPA found that this was a policy violation by way of not recording his time properly,” Oversight Executive Director Jill Fitcheard writes in a new Proposed Resolution Report. “By a preponderance of the evidence, however, the Executive Director finds that Captain’s
statements to the investigators on both of these occasions violate MNPD policy regarding false statements.”
Metro Nashville Community Oversight investigated only the complaint by the nanny — not any other allegations against Reinbold. Because he is no longer with the department, the former captain cannot face further discipline. However, the oversight agency is recommending that the former captain be deemed ineligible for rehire.
The Community Oversight Board will vote on the executive director’s recommendations at a meeting Wednesday. If approved, the report will be submitted to the chief of police, who will then decide whether to follow the recommendations.
Reinbold retired in 2020
The video of Reinbold yelling in his backyard prompted dozens of current and former MNPD employees to come forward with allegations of misconduct — some against him and some against other high-ranking members of the department. Reinbold denied the accusations against him in an interview with the Office of Professional Accountability, calling them “slander.”
Reinbold retired in good standing last fall, after accepting 10 suspension days for another disciplinary investigation. During an interview with the Office of Professional Accountability, published for the first time by WPLN News and APM Reports, the captain admitted to making unauthorized copies of the personnel files of several former officers who had accused him of wrongdoing. He requested a settlement before the department could complete its investigation.
WPLN News and APM Reports has interviewed more than 20 current and former employees who described disparities in the disciplinary system at MNPD. Many said the department often protects police accused of bad behavior if they have allies in the upper ranks, while punishing those who report misconduct or challenge the status quo — particularly women and people of color. Through an analysis of 10 years of MNPD disciplinary data, reporters found that nonwhite employees accused of wrongdoing faced the most severe forms of discipline — suspension, demotion and/or termination — at higher rates than their white counterparts.
Reporters also reviewed a Metro Human Resources investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct against Reinbold, conducted the year before the incident in his backyard. In 2019, a female officer told the city’s HR department that Reinbold had locked her in his office and groped her breast three years earlier.
More: Behind The Blue Wall: Officers Describe A ‘Toxic’ Culture Within Metro Police
Reinbold denied the accusation. Investigators wrote in a fact-finding report that they could not prove or disprove the allegation, because there was no video or other physical evidence. Their report was forwarded to Reinbold’s supervisor, but the police department never conducted its own investigation or added the report to his personnel file.
The TBI also investigated the woman’s allegation, but a Davidson County prosecutor told WPLN News in September that she had to close the case without pressing charges because the statute of limitations had expired.
Neither Reinbold nor MNPD immediately responded to requests for comment.
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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