Metro Nashville PD Doesn’t Have Enough Officers to Provide Elementary School SROs Despite State Funding

The Metro Nashville Police Department has no plans to apply for $5.25 million in new funding available from the state to place school resource officers in each Nashville elementary school, saying the agency does not have capacity to staff the 70 public schools.

Officials have never created SRO positions for elementary campuses at Metro Nashville Public Schools, and there are no plans to add any for the 2023-24 school year. The millions in new state funding were made available following the deadly shooting at The Covenant School, a private K-5 institution.

“The police department presently is not staffed to provide full time SROs at elementary schools (more than 70 personnel),” MNPD spokesman Don Aaron said in a statement to The Tennessean . 

MNPD does plan to apply for $3.375 million in state grant funding to support its existing positions at middle and high schools, 28 of which are currently vacant, with an aim of having 60 existing SRO positions fully staffed by September. Existing SRO positions for middle and high schools have not been fully staffed for many years, requiring “alternative assignment models to ensure coverage," according to a MNPS security plan released last month.