NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Former and current city leaders came together Friday to celebrate the opening of the Metro Nashville Police Department's new Southeast Precinct, which has been more than eight years in the making.

The facility is now officially open and operational. It is located on the corner of Edge O Lake Drive and Murfreesboro Pike.

"This has been a long time coming," Metro Councilmember for District 32, Joy Styles, explained.

"Today is [and] was a relief from eight years of hard work," Former District 28 Councilmember Tanaka Vercher said.

"We are going to make sure that we use all of our resources to make sure our city is safe and make Antioch, Southeast Nashville safe — be ready," Commander of MNPD's Southeast Precinct, Carlos Lara, said.

The push for a Southeast Precinct started eight years ago when residents said the South Precinct was stretched too thin. At the time, it covered 70 square miles, making response times slow and crime more difficult to track.

"Neighbors, they were sick and tired of being sick and tired," Vercher explained. "Eleven hundred neighbors signed a petition."

In 2021, then-mayor John Cooper announced plans for Metro's ninth precinct. Ground broke in May 2023 and construction began a year later. In that time, MNPD data from 2024 showed the far southeast parts of Davidson County experienced an average response time of 80 minutes. Street racing and a lack of police visibility led the department to add extra patrols while the precinct was being built.

"Talking about racing, people using the turn lanes to go around cars, [and] taking over intersections," Lara described.

Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell explained those extra patrols have already made a dent.

"Police response times dropped by more than 10 minutes," O’Connell said.

The new precinct covers about 70 square miles, but includes parts of Percy Priest Lake, making the coverage mileage around 50 square miles. Next spring and summer, the MNPD will add a dedicated lake patrol.

"When they call 911, they know a car is coming," Styles said. 

Around 6 a.m. Friday, more than 80 personnel held their first roll call inside the new building, including a full-time traffic division.

"You're going to see them coming through the area.," Lara described. "You're going to see a lot of blue lights on Bell Road and Murfreesboro — I promise you that."

Carlos Lara, now the first Latino precinct commander in Metro's history, told News 2 his mission isn't just law enforcement but trust.

"Our job is to building trust," Lara said. "I think that having worked with them for so long and understanding the language and the culture that is helping me to connect with them in a way that if someone else was here they wouldn't be able to connect to."

That all begins with the opening of this new facility.

"It wasn't just another Metro building that opened today," Styles expressed. "This was an opportunity, this was a door that opened for us that is part of our revitalization of Antioch."

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/mnpd-southeast-precinct-opens/