Metro Council approves resolution pressing police, transportation department for traffic enforcement plan

The Metropolitan Council on Jan. 21 approved a resolution (RS 2024-905) asking the Metro Nashville Police Department and the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure to submit plans for stepped-up traffic enforcement and traffic-calming work focused on DUI, speeding, reckless driving and distracted driving.

Councilmember John Eslick, the leading sponsor, said traffic complaints were among the top topics he receives from constituents and that the resolution asks for coordinated plans from MNPD and NDOT. “The resolution asked for a plan from MNPD. It asked for a plan from NDOT,” Eslick said, describing the intent to reduce reckless driving and save lives.

The council accepted a substitute offered by Councilwoman Toombs that narrowed the resolution’s emphasis to four enforcement categories — DUI, speeding, reckless driving and distracted driving — and asked NDOT for a review of traffic-calming effectiveness. Toombs said that narrowing was intended to preserve the original safety goal while avoiding a return to prior policing practices criticized in earlier reports: “The purpose of the substitute is to narrow the focus of MNPD to the 4 areas that they have already been concentrated on…which is part of Chief Drake’s precision policing.”

Councilmember Eslick also moved an amendment calling for the traffic division to be fully staffed; the amendment passed 17–16 with 3 abstentions. Eslick said the traffic division is operating below full strength and argued added staffing would allow more on-street enforcement focused on speeding and reckless driving.

Other council members debated the balance between enforcement and civil‑rights concerns. Councilmember Porterfield referenced the 2016 Driving While Black report and the 2018 Policing Project analysis as reasons to guard against broad, disproportionate enforcement; she publicly supported the substitute’s narrower language. Councilmember Nash noted that disparities exist but said the data do not necessarily prove discriminatory intent.

After the substitute and amendment were adopted, the council approved the resolution as substituted and amended by voice vote; the clerk recorded abstentions for two members but did not read a final roll‑call tally in the transcript. The approved resolution directs NDOT to report on the effectiveness of traffic‑calming measures and asks MNPD for a written plan describing how it will address DUI, speeding, reckless driving and distracted driving and how vacancies in the traffic division will be filled.

The resolution does not change law or appropriate funds; it requests plans and reporting from department leadership and the police chief. Moving forward, the council said the plans will be used to inform possible budget and policy actions.