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Metro Nashville Police expect body camera rollout to be completed this summer





A Metro Nashville police officer reviews body camera footage from an interview taken at the scene of a residential burglary. Courtesy / Metro Nashville Police Department

A Metro Nashville police officer reviews body camera footage from an interview taken at the scene of a residential burglary. Courtesy / Metro Nashville Police Department

Roughly one year after piloting a body and dashboard camera program for officers, the Metro Nashville Police Department still has some way to go before its distribution is complete.

According to MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron, 514 officers had been given cameras as of Monday. Each officer has been issued two body cameras. In addition, 242 police vehicles have been outfitted with cameras, each with three installed.

Those cameras, distributed to officers at two precincts and to all field training officers, according to the MNPD, have recently showcased some of what makes them important tools to the police and to the public they serve.

On March 12, police responded to two calls that each led to officers shooting a person they were interacting with peacefully moments before.

Early that Friday morning, Field Training Officer Josh Baker shot 31-year-old Nika Holbert during an exchange of gunfire, killing her.

That evening, a Goodlettsville woman wielding a pickax and baseball bat was also confronted by police officers after she called them demanding to be shot. They refused until the woman eventually charged toward one of them.

 

 

The woman was in stable condition before the day was out.

In both cases, body camera footage played a major role in discerning what happened.

In Baker’s case, his body-worn camera caught his entire interaction with Holbert. It showed a calm interaction turned sour when he attempted to arrest her for possession of drugs.

A review of that footage, plus dashboard footage from Baker’s vehicle, allowed police to make a determination of who shot first. Aaron noted at the time that the first puff of smoke from gunfire rose before Baker’s trigger finger moved in the video.

In the other case, in which Field Training Officer Ben Williams was wearing a camera, video showed exactly where and how the situation escalated.

After each case, the MNPD defended the actions of officers, though in all cases the officers were placed on routine administrative leave pending investigations by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The MNPD said in each case officers followed protocols and that the situations spiraled outside of their control.

The second shooting also served as a reminder that not all MNPD officers are wearing cameras yet, as only one perspective was captured despite three officers present.

The program was initially piloted in March 2020, a few months before the department and city officials gave a strong commitment to the camera rollout in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

At the time, technology present at Nashville precincts wasn’t ready for the introduction of cameras, the department said. Rolling out cameras that potentially capture hundreds of hours of footage each day requires a way to upload footage and store it safely for long-term use.

As of this month, the MNPD says it has finished upgrading the West and East precincts, and distributed cameras to officers stationed there.

It has also outfitted its traffic and special response tactical units with cameras, alongside members of the training division, those in the Office of Community Engagement and Partnerships, and recruits in Training Session 91, according to information reported monthly by the MNPD.

The department has also published a timeline on its website for the rest of the deployment.

This month, the department began its work to get the Madison and North precincts camera-ready and outfitted.

In May, the work will begin in the Central and Midtown precincts. The Hermitage and South precincts will follow suit in June, finishing out the rollout.

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