Nashville Public Safety Agencies Face Cuts Even as Population Grows

The first responders—police, sheriff, and fire—in the largest city in Tennessee have been asked to tighten their budgetary belts despite the fact that the region is growing in population.

According to WTVF-TV , the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department was asked to come up with "targeted savings" in its budget.

The targeted savings for the Metro Police Department is $1,993,000. It is $586,300 for the Metro Fire Department and $636,300 for the Sheriff's Office.

Each agency is doing what it can to make those targets by shutting down certain operations and units, but the lion's share of the savings achieved so far has been in attrition from the ranks, according to the President of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"We're losing officers every day. Police officers are making the conscious decision to walk away from the Metro Police Department and do something different," James Smallwood said.

Nashville has lost 54 officers in the last six months.