Communication Breakdowns Continue to Hinder Police Oversight Board

The Metro Nashville Police Department never wanted the Community Oversight Board to exist. 

When renewed calls for an independent board empowered to investigate alleged police misconduct began in early 2017, the idea faced resistance from police leadership. When activists succeeded in forcing a citywide referendum on the matter, the MNPD opposed them in the ensuing campaign. Most visibly, the Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents many Nashville officers, launched a blatantly misleading campaign against it. When voters approved the creation of the COB, the union tried unsuccessfully to have it overturned by the election commission and several courts.    

Since then, the lines of communication between the MNPD and the COB have rarely been without static. Once the board was in place, the process of working out a memorandum of understanding between the two entities was fraught. COB leaders called out Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson publicly for being less than fully cooperative. The MNPD expressed shock and outrage at the claims. Eventually, an agreement was reached. 

But that is the backdrop for several recent incidents exposing various flaws in the functioning relationship between the oversight board and the department it is meant to oversee.  

Earlier this month, the Scene reported that a 42-year-old white man named Gabriel Hines died in Davidson County Sheriff’s Office custody five days after he was arrested in West Nashville. He was allegedly caught stealing lumber from a construction site with two other men. His co-defendants have alleged that officers used excessive force with Hines during the arrest. A medical examiner’s report is still pending, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.  

But the first time the COB heard about Hines’ case was three months after the fact, when the Scene reached out for comment. Executive director Jill Fitcheard said she was “shocked” to hear about Hines’ death and disappointed that none of the Metro agencies who had been involved in the case had notified the COB. The MNPD confirmed it had had no contact with the COB. 

Fitcheard did highlight a potentially problematic gray area in the COB’s agreement with the MNPD. The relevant section of the MOU states: “The Department agrees to cooperate with the Board and the Department of Emergency Communications (DEC) to facilitate the Board’s receiving notification of critical incidents involving Police Officers, including but not limited to uses of force involving serious injury or death or to death in custody.” But Hines was no longer in MNPD custody when he died, and MNPD says it learned of the allegations about excessive use of force after his death. MNPD officials did not take it upon themselves to notify the COB at that point, and soon after, Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk asked the TBI to launch an inquiry of its own. 

On May 14, one day after Fitcheard made her comments to the Scene about the Hines case, the COB found itself out of the loop again. On the night of May 13, according to an MNPD press release, Officers Melissa Flores and Chase Harriman responded to a North Nashville house where a child had reported that his father had assaulted his mother. The man — Sekou Allen, who is black — had driven away from the house, but officers spotted him driving in the neighborhood. He drove back to the family house, and police say he got out of his vehicle and “advanced aggressively” toward the officers.  

Here’s what the MNPD says happened next: “A Taser was deployed which appeared to have no impact. Officer Harriman slipped on gravel and fell onto his back. When Allen appeared prepared to jump on Harriman, Flores fired, striking Allen in the leg.”

A statement from the COB the following morning said the agency was “only notified of the domestic related incident and not that it was a critical incident involving a police officer shooting.” 

“Insufficient notification to COB staff seeks to erode progress while undermining the still healing trust between the Nashville community and law enforcement,” said COB Chair Ashlee Davis in a written statement.

Fitcheard added: “Our staff has prepared itself to respond to all critical incidents that we are properly notified of and if a proper notification was sent from DEC of this incident we would have responded to the scene. The community expects the [Community Oversight Board] to be an engaged and active partner in all critical incidents involving MNPD — especially officer involved shootings — and the [Community Oversight Board] takes this responsibility seriously.”

Stephen Martini, director of the Department of Emergency Communications, tells the Scene that a notification was sent to the Community Oversight Board immediately following the incident, at the request of an MNPD field captain. But he acknowledged that it did not mention the shooting. 

“Discussions with the Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board on May 15th revealed this and future notifications could be more clear in specifically identifying an officer-involved shooting occurred within this response,” says Martini in an emailed statement. “Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications is now engaged with our industry partners to leverage our existing public safety technology solutions to implement automatic notifications for certain incident types or response actions as they occur, as identified by the Community Oversight Board in agreement with the Metro Nashville Police Department.”

Fitcheard tells the Scene that efforts to resolve the issue have been productive. 

On May 21, Nashville officers shot and killed a man who, according to an MNPD release, had fled after shooting an off-duty officer near his home. Police say a spike strip was used to stop the man’s car and that officers fired on him after they heard shots being fired as he exited the vehicle. The case has been taken over by the TBI. 

Soon after, Fitcheard was on the scene, and the COB will launch its own investigation.