What does Nashville's next mayor want to do about crime? We asked.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Crime in Nashville is always a topic of conversation, particularly as the city has grown throughout the last decade.

In 2021, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation recorded 70,000 different crimes that happened in Nashville. Of those, 101 people were murdered with only 40 of those cases solved. The data from 2022 isn't available yet.

So, we asked Nashville's slate of mayoral candidates their take on crime and public safety.

NewsChannel 5 sent every person running for mayor a questionnaire with the same questions. We have not edited these answers from the candidates, meaning these responses are straight from them.

Nashville’s violent crime rate outpaces the national average as well as that of similar-sized cities. As Mayor, how would you work with MNPD to ensure Nashvillians can feel safe in our city?

Natisha Brooks

As Mayor we will work with the State Legislature to have a “Pipeline” from High School to the police MNPD. There is JROTC for the Armed Forces, there needs to be a Junior MNPD in High Schools with EMPHASIS on a two year FREE College Associates Degree in Psychology or Sociology. If an 18 year old can serve their country - an 18 year old can serve their city.

Fran Bush

If I am elected as your next Mayor, I would promote community-oriented policing strategies that prioritize building trust, collaboration, and positive relationships between law enforcement and the community. Encourage officers to engage with residents, establish neighborhood watch programs, and facilitate regular community meetings to address concerns and foster dialogue. Utilize data analysis and intelligence-led policing techniques to identify crime hotspots and trends.

This information can help allocate resources effectively, focus law enforcement efforts in high-crime areas, and address root causes of crime through targeted interventions. Invest in evidence-based crime prevention programs that have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing violence and criminal activity. These may include initiatives focused on youth mentorship, conflict resolution, restorative justice, and gang prevention. Engage these stakeholders in collaborative efforts, such as supporting after-school programs, creating safe routes to schools, and promoting community cohesion. Work collaboratively with other city departments, such as public health, education, housing, and social services, to address the interconnected social, economic, and health factors that contribute to crime and violence.

Heidi Campbell

Ensuring that Nashvillians feel safe will always be one of my top priorities as mayor. Our gun problem in America is a public health crisis. Firearms are now the leading cause of death for our children. And while this problem understandably gets a lot of attention in the wake of tragedies like Covenant, we need to realize that it is a problem that plagues our city every single day, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

While Nashville’s Mayor can’t change the gun laws passed by the State Legislature, they can educate the public on gun safety and help ensure firearms are responsibly sold and safely stored–this is exactly what I’ll do as Nashville’s Mayor. I will also pursue solutions to our opioid epidemic, a crisis that has left no family untouched. Increasing Narcan Kit availability in Metro facilities, partnering with community organizations to promote recovery options, and quickening response times to overdose calls through Smart City Technology are just a few of the ways my administration will work to address this issue.

Bernie Cox

I’ve had the privilege to personally speak with several Metro Police officers. Our first responders and law enforcement are key to safety and preservation of Nashville tourism and residents. They should all be compensated with a fair and decent wage for the amazing duties they perform each and every day, and often with threat on their own personal safety.

But, do you know what I hear most from them? They want to be supported. That’s their biggest need is a want to believe that our city and administration have their back while they have ours. It’s about building motivation and security within the departments themselves and not allowing politics to reduce their values to protect, for fear of ridicule by government bureaucracy. The safety of our community does not belong in the political arena. We must show our support and appreciation by recognizing their needs and desires are aligned within our community. Meeting their professional commitments is paramount to their mission to serve and protect.

Jim Gingrich

In May, I visited Warner Arts Magnet Elementary School. I ran into a 3rd grade class in the hall and I asked the students what Nashville needed, and they eagerly shouted, “Love.” “Stop shootings.” “Kindness.” “No more stabbings.” “More parks.” The thoughts of our 8 and 9 year olds tell you exactly what you need to know about the safety of Nashville. We are failing our kids. Making a city safe is job one for a mayor and we are far from where we need to be. We need to act with urgency.

I will do three things:

First, I will properly fund our police force.

Second, I will tirelessly advocate for common-sense gun legislation.

Third, I will implement a comprehensive crime prevention strategy focused on vulnerable young people. I will establish an office of public safety, reporting to me, that will roll out strategies that have been proven to work in other cities, that will integrate the efforts of multiple Metro departments as well as community partners.

Sharon Hurt

You have to get to the root of a problem before you get to the fruit of it. I will focus on the root causes of crime and give our kids the resources they need to be successful. It all begins with public services — getting money into our schools, our social services, our rec centers and our public swimming pools so kids have a place to go after school.

We need to set up our kids for a pipeline to prosperity rather than a pipeline to prison. We also have to make sure that Nashville is a leader in community policing and that the police have relationships with the people they’re supposed to protect. When I was growing up, the captain of the police lived a block away from me and my mom would greet him every morning. That’s the type of relationship we need between the police and the neighborhood. Baltimore has successfully piloted a community-based policing program that has cut violent crime there. As Mayor, I will implement a similar program to ensure Nashvillians are safe.

Freddie O'Connell

Our police made Nashville proud with their response to the Covenant School shooting, and they deserve our support — particularly when it comes to competitive compensation. But even one of the police commanders I work with regularly has identified the correlation between poverty and crime. The safest cities are the ones with the most hope, the best schools, and the most economic opportunity.

We need to create a public safety plan that doesn’t make us choose between safety and justice — one that brings together the community, law enforcement, and others to build a roadmap to making Nashville as safe as it possibly can be, including engaging other departments so that our police can focus on crime, not on noise complaints, party buses, and parking violations. It also means ensuring mental health crises are treated as such by expanding funding for the REACH program which pairs paramedics with mental health professionals. We can expand the community safety partnership funding model, make The Village a permanent part of a support for vulnerable communities, and begin to implement group violence intervention.

Alice Rolli

As Mayor, Alice Rolli will reset the attitude at the top around our approach to crime and our support of our police. While Alice has never worn the uniform, her husband wore the uniform for 20 years and she understands what it means to support those who swear their lives to serve others. Alice has advocated for a re-set from a criminal justice system to a victims’ justice system - and she believes that the pendulum has swung too far in not enforcing sentencing guidelines for crimes like firearm theft.

Morale in our police force will continue to decline if we continue to accept a catch-and-release attitude around crime. Based on national crime data currently two-thirds of our crimes reported are never cleared — this is making our criminals more bold and our victims more helpless. As Mayor Alice Rolli will demand accountability for our residents — and for victims of crime — so that we can avoid following the path of other big cities in America.

Matt Wiltshire

Nashville doesn’t feel as safe as it did when I was growing up here. We must work urgently to lower crime both by increasing investments in public safety and by working to address the underlying causes of crime.

Over the last several years police response times — to both nonemergency and emergency calls — have risen to unacceptable levels. The first thing we need to do is fully staff our police department. As mayor, I’ll also work with MNPD to emphasize getting illegal guns off the streets. We can work more closely with state and federal partners, such as ATF, to accomplish this. I also will further expand the Partners in Care program to utilize mental health professionals to respond to public safety calls and de-escalate situations.

We also will invest in addressing the root causes of violence in our community. Those investments will include Increased mental health resources and youth employment programs.

Finally, I’ll use my bully pulpit and the office of the Mayor to raise awareness around this issue and urge federal and state leaders to take action.

Vivian Wilhoite

We must keep Nashville a safe place to raise a family and grow a business. I believe we must ensure that Chief Drake has the resources he needs to succeed in his role as Chief of Police. We also must ensure that Judge Sheila Calloway has the resources she needs to succeed as Juvenile Court Judge that will deal with the offenders and assist victims.

We must do the same for District Attorney Glenn Funk to make sure he has the resources he needs to succeed to deal with the offenders and assist the victims in his role as the District Attorney. Many of the crimes in our city are committed by teenagers and young adults. Working with youth to help them learn how to de-escalate manners and providing them with wrap around services at community centers, schools and not for profit organizations who work to identify the root cause of the crime are ways I and my administration will work to decrease crime. Local government cannot do it alone.

Jeff Yarbro

Public safety is a fundamental requirement for a successful city. If Nashville gets everything else right but fails to keep people safe, the city’s future will be at risk. The next Mayor must work with MNPD to implement place-based policing, violence interruption, and non-policing investments and interventions that concentrate on the primary drivers of criminal conduct and violence, which are proven to work.

We also need to ensure we’re hiring sufficient police officers and increasing salaries to avoid staffing shortages and turnover. We must focus on the training, transparency, and accountability measures essential to build and support community trust. But we can’t focus solely on policing when it comes to thinking of solutions to address crime. Part of the city’s charge when it comes to safety is responding quickly in communities that are neglected and developing conditions that allow crime to arise in the first place.