The Metro Nashville Police Department has launched a team to investigate carjackings, armed robberies and other serial violent crimes.
The department says it started testing the approach in August. Since then, MNPD says, the unit has arrested 66 people through robbery investigations and recovered 33 guns. Now, they’re making it permanent.
It’s part of a philosophy that Chief John Drake has embraced since he took over the department last year.
The idea is to proactively look for people who are suspected of breaking the law, instead of responding to 911 calls. Backers of the strategy call it “precision policing.” Officers are supposed to focus on a small group of people who they say are committing the majority of crimes and work closely with residents to investigate.
Drake has created multiple new units rooted in precision policing, including a centralized homicide division, the TITANS neighborhood shootings team and the Community Field Intelligence Teams, which investigate crimes at the precinct level. Now, there will be a Violent Crime Division, too.
More: Read about the Metro Nashville Police Department’s proactive policing units
In a press release, Drake called precision policing one of the department’s “three key pillars,” along with “organizational excellence and community engagement.”
“The new Violent Crime Division will take a precision county-wide approach to identify those persons in our community whose acts of violence pose real threats to the safety of Nashvillians and businesses,” he said.
The unit will also include two teams that will work within public housing to lower crime and strengthen relationships with residents, according to the department. MNPD tried a similar tactic a few years back, when it sent walking patrols into the James A. Cayce Homes, Nashville’s largest public housing complex.
The announcement comes amid a rise in violent crime in many U.S. cities, including in Nashville. Police data show homicides are up 40% compared to 2019.
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