NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Metro Councilmembers passed a resolution Tuesday that tasks both the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) with improving traffic across the city.
Metro Council has discussed previous versions of this resolution, including a version asking both the MNPD and NDOT to increase traffic enforcement. The resolution passed Tuesday was a substituted version proposed by District 2 Councilmember Kyontzé Toombs, who said the substitution addressed concerns from the Metro Council Minority Caucus.
“The original resolution, as worded, implied massive traffic stops and we did not want to go back to the times where MNPD was stopping 7.7 times the national average for traffic stops when MNPD was stopping more Black drivers,” Toombs said.
Toombs and the substituted amendment referenced the 2016 Driving While Black report from Gideon’s Army and other Nashville community organizers, which found the overall stop rate for all drivers was 7.7 times the national average between 2011 and 2015. Toombs’ substitution called for the MNPD to prioritize reckless driving, driving under the influence, speeding and distracted driving infractions “and to avoid returning to the biased enforcement highlighted” by the report.
Jeff Eslick amended the substitution and highlighted a need to fill all vacancies within the MNPD’s Traffic Division — he said the division aims for 50 officers, but was short by “six or seven.” However, in discussions he’d had with MNPD officers, he added he didn’t see the full staffing as being an issue.
Additionally, Toombs asked NDOT for a plan to improve traffic calming measures across the city as council members discussed some residents’ disapproval of traffic calming techniques implemented in neighborhoods like West Nashville.
Both the MNPD and NDOT have until March 31, 2025 to present reports on non-police traffic enforcement and Neighborhood Streets Traffic Calming Program improvements respectively.
