The Nashville Town Council has approved the use of $125,900 in cumulative capital development (CCD) funds for the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department.
Town council voted unanimously on Nov. 19 to use the funds to get the police department “caught up” with necessary equipment, Town Council President Nancy Crocker said.
Crocker said she wanted to include in her motion to approve the measure that the funds would provide bullet proof vests and ammunition.
“Everything on this list is for the safety of our officers,” Crocker said.
Nashville Metropolitan Police Chief Heather Burris said last week the funds will also cover body cameras, tasers, pepper spray, Class A uniforms, report software and training equipment.
It also allows for a clothing allowance for volunteer reserve officers with the department.
Burris reported to the town council in November that two reserve officers, Carl Drennon and Heath Young, had recently joined the department.
The department now has five reserve officers.
“Those guys do a service for this town for free, the least I can do is allow them a … clothing allowance,” Burris said last week.
“(It’s) important that I show them I appreciate their free service that helps me and the town at the same time.”
At some point Burris said she would like to upgrade in-car cameras to online cameras, as the equipment they have now is offline.
She would also like to add NPD merchandise for community events like National Night Out.
Before the council approved the use of CCD funds, the line item for new police department equipment was previously $0, Burris said last week.
The total CCD budget for 2023 is $60,000, with $12,000 designated for fire equipment. This will not take away from the fire equipment budget, Burris said.
By state law, CCD funds are able to be transferred between municipal departments for designated purposes, including public health, welfare or safety in emergency situations.
Nashville Clerk-Treasurer Brenda Young said last week that she, Burris and NPD Lt. Mike Horn went over the list for necessary police department equipment, which totaled to $125,900.
The items will be paid for this month and the town has applied for additional appropriations with the Department of Local Government Finance to cover those expenses.
The additional appropriations requested in the CCD fund is $39,000. Once the public hearing has been completed and the town council has approved the resolution, the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) will then issue an approval, since the funds are there to support the request, Young said.
The town council will hold a public hearing for input, after which the council can pass a resolution to adopt the additional appropriations. Young will then send the resolution to the DLGF for their approval.
Additional appropriations will not officially be in effect until the DLGF approves them, Young said.
She added that in 2023 the same additional appropriations process will be gone through to spend the remainder of the approved $125,900, since the expenses will be more than was originally budgeted in the 2023 budget.
“This process should also be approved by DLGF after we follow all the necessary steps,” Young said via email last week.
The increase of safety has not been the only measure prioritized for the NPD but security improvements have been made at the police department building on Artist Drive as well.
At the September town council meeting, Burris reported to the council that an assessment of the building gave the department ideas on how to better and safely equip the building.
In November, she reported to the council those improvements had been made, including securing windows and doors to lessen access to the building. The interview room was also sound-proofed.
The cost for improvements was $2,500 which came out of the budget for police building maintenance.
More NPD updates
NPD officers responded to 279 calls for service in October and 73 parking tickets were issued, Burris reported to the council in November.
Burris said at the meeting that since the department has been short staffed this year she has made changes to time off for officers.
For officers in the department unable to take time off this year, Burris worked with Young to allow officer to roll over those unused vacation days into 2023.
In changes made, Burris said she has made sure that unused sick time off cannot be paid out for officers who leave the department.
For part-time officers, Burris and Young added to their employment contracts that they be paid a regular hourly wage unless they work on a holiday in place of another officer.
Burris also asked to roll over two weeks of her own vacation time from 2022 into 2023, which the council approved unanimously.
