Nashville’s Police Department wants to bring back the neighborhood cop—on foot. It’s not an obvious choice for a sprawling city like Nashville. But it’s one that aims to put the community back into policing.
Police Chief Steve Anderson is asking Mayor Megan Barry to allot the funds in next year’s budget for an additional 22 positions to deploy as officers who walk. It’s a tactic embraced by cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
“I probably don’t go a week that I’m not in front of some public meeting where there isn’t some request: We want walking officers. We want walking beats,” Anderson says.
The concept is that the cruiser can be a barrier between the officer and the community. But being on foot pushes them to engage with the neighborhood on a personal level.
In the past, downtown and around Five Points in East Nashville have experimented with foot patrols. But if Anderson’s request is approved, it would mean a handful of residential neighborhoods would get two shifts a day of walking officers.
“The officers would be saturated into the community,” Anderson says. “Having officers out there on the street instills that public confidence.”
In Los Angeles, for example, foot patrol units have yielded some good results. When LAPD began deploying officers on foot to the Watts neighborhood, homicides dropped by 50 percent in the first three years. Cops on foot helped kids walk to school without the risk of crossing gang lines and they had daily check-ins with elderly residents. Some even began coaching sports teams and leading Girl Scout troops.
Anderson hasn’t decided yet where the officers would go, but they will be limited considering the county spans 525 square miles.
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