A peer study analyzing 10 cities shows Nashville is an outlier when it comes to technology used in policing.
The Nashville Police and Public Safety Alliance commissioned the report, with Buntin Consulting studying how departments compare. The report featured crime trends, staffing and access to technology.
Right now, the Metro Nashville Police Department only uses public cameras dispersed throughout downtown. Those cameras helped in the nationalized case of Riley Strain, an inebriated college student who fell and drowned in the Cumberland River. However, those cameras only helped until a point — with no cameras pointing directly at the water to capture Strain.
The report points out that MNPD doesn’t police with license plate readers, which record passing vehicles. Police in Austin, Texas, are the only other department in the peer study that doesn’t use LPRs.
It would cost the city $2 million to implement the program — but those dollars are not part of the police budget for the next fiscal year. Metro tried a pilot program of license plate readers, but the Metro Community Oversight Board said they detected racial disparities in the program.
“Civil liberties advocates and some elected officials in Nashville have expressed a range of concerns about LPR and video surveillance technologies,” the report states. “These include concerns about the potential for racial bias in deployment, skepticism about the efficacy of oversight and policy safeguards, and concerns that federal law enforcement agencies could access local data for purposes such as immigration enforcement or monitoring First Amendment-protected activities.”
Back in 2017, Belle Meade’s police department embraced license plate readers. At the time, they bought 19 of the devices. That city is exempt from Metro policies that dictate purchases of surveillance equipment. In 2025, Belle Meade’s city council approved ordering more.
One neighborhood in Nashville, Haynes Park, even bought its own license plate reader to help police, but that came with heavy discussion and debate among its residents.
Cities outside of Nashville use license plate readers, including Brentwood and Mt. Juliet.
Other tech not used
The report also demonstrates that Nashville doesn’t have a gunshot detection system, nor real-time video across the county to support its crime center.
Chief John Drake said he wouldn’t mind using more technology.
“When you look at the peer study, we compare favorably to any city in America,” Drake said. “But we could also have further deductions and less crime victims if we had technology that could help us be more effective.”
However, in recent years, the Metro Council has expanded its control over surveillance proposals. That requires police contracts to go through legislative review.
That show of power was evident during the Fusus debate, which would have allowed a community camera network throughout Nashville. Metro Council ultimately voted against the program. If Fusus is brought back to Metro Council, members voted on a guardrails bill in 2025 to regulate the technology. It’s not clear when Fusus is up before the council again.
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