by Lillian Avedian, Nashville Banner
March 6, 2026
The Metro Nashville Police Department has completed a report listing 19 recommendations to enhance safety at Metro Nashville Public Schools.
In Feb. 2025, in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Antioch High School, Metro Council adopted a resolution requesting that MNPD conduct an assessment of safety plans and measures at Nashville’s public schools. The Banner reported last month that, one year after the resolution’s adoption, the report hadn’t been released.
Thursday, the Banner reviewed the final report from MNPD.
The recommendations “represent safety-focused tools and considerations that may assist MNPS in strengthening existing measures, with the understanding that implementation should align with educational best practices and the practical needs of the school community,” the report reads.
MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted said that the district received the report on Wednesday and needs more time to fully review the recommendations.
“While the recommendations in this report were developed without input from school officials with direct insight into how our schools operate, we will review them through the lens of operational feasibility and student safety to determine which, if any, should be pursued,” Braisted wrote in an email to the Banner.
The report recommends forming a School Safety Advisory Committee that includes representatives from MNPD and other law enforcement, Nashville Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, MNPS staff, Metro Council and a financial representative. Its work would include reviews of MNPS safety protocols, researching best practices, and recommendation and implementation of safety measures, including training and infrastructure upgrades.
This committee “can ensure that school safety protocols are informed by those whose primary training and professional focus is on safety, security and crisis management,” while allowing teachers and administrators to focus on education, the report reads.
MNPS has installed Evolv weapons detection systems at high schools and all but three middle schools “with plans to continue expansion to all schools,” according to the report, which also recommends those efforts continue while ensuring that school staff overseeing this technology are trained in what to do if a weapon is found.
Braisted told the Banner that MNPS does not have plans to expand Evolv to elementary schools at this time.
The report recommends expanding the Omnilert emergency notification system. This would include additional integrated cameras for broader campus-wide surveillance.
It also recommends the use of license plate readers by MNPD and the integration of FUSUS and MNPD’s Community Safety Center, in order to help detect stolen cars and wanted persons and provide timely suspect information.
When asked whether the district would support the use of license plate readers on or near school campuses, Braisted responded that the district cannot support or pursue this recommendation “without a more compelling rationale and meaningful steps” to address concerns.
“There are significant family, community and Metro Council concerns regarding data use, retention and the potential for information to be accessed for purposes unrelated to school safety,” he said.
The district limits the use of surveillance technology on campuses, and this would be a “significant shift” that “raises important questions about whether it aligns with our responsibility to maintain safe, trusted learning environments for students and families.”
Other recommendations
MNPS students and staff have ID cards, and the MNPD report recommends adding badge readers, which the report asserts would increase the accuracy of attendance tracking, control access and identification and help move away from manual attendance records.
It also recommends a clear bag policy, requiring that any bag on campus be transparent with its contents visible.
Students and staff letting people into buildings without proper visitor protocols is a “significant concern,” according to the report. MNPS should ensure that signs are placed on exterior doors notifying individuals not to open doors for anyone, and that visitors first check in with the main office.
Grandmaster keys — single keys that would unlock any door — to school campuses would enable quick access for first responders, who have had to “breach many doors in past police responses.”
“MNPD understands the extreme time and monetary costs this project would cause the district,” the report reads.
The report recommends a raft of other measures as well: the implementation of a notification system on staff cell phones to quickly report incidents and make decisions on lockdown and lockout scenarios; expansion of campus support personnel hired by MNPS schools to assist with safety; an audible alarm system on all exterior doors; clear markings and labels on all exterior points at MNPS facilities; and prioritization of work orders for maintenance needs such as broken locks or windows.
It also recommends that MNPS require schools to complete an armed intruder drill within the first 30 days of the semester, and that all teachers and staff receive Citizen Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) training. MNPS currently mandates the armed intruder drill, incident command drill and emergency safety bus drill and provides CRASE training.
MNPD requested that its Rapid School Safety Team conduct annual individual site assessments for each MNPS school, as stated in the Metro Council resolution.
The report adds that MNPS should continue current efforts to improve cell phone and radio reception, evaluate its Family Assistance Center Sites in coordination with law enforcement, and fund MNPD security presence at graduations, sporting and other events.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/03/06/mnpd-review-mnps-school-safety-measures/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://nashvillebanner.com”>Nashville Banner</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/nashvillebanner.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/favicon-300×300-1.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://nashvillebanner.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=26864&ga4=G-7M2L6EHPYT” style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/03/06/mnpd-review-mnps-school-safety-measures/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/nashvillebanner.com/p.js”></script>
Click Here For The Original Source.
