Metro Police pledge to cut response times with new Southeast Precinct in Antioch
“Now you’re putting 133 more officers in this area, in this precinct, and that’s only going to make response times better.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Metro Nashville Police broke ground on a new police precinct in Antioch on Wednesday, pledging that it will help cut response times in the area.
The Southeast Precinct, set to open in the second half of 2024, will add 133 more police officers to Antioch, Metro Police said.
“That’s going to help response times tremendously right there,” Metro Police Chief John Drake said. “Now you’re putting 133 more officers in this area, in this precinct, and that’s only going to make response times better.”
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The 24,000-square-foot facility will be located on Murfreesboro Pike on the property of the old Antioch Kmart.
Chief Drake hopes, when the precinct opens, his department will be overstaffed. This time last year, Drake said, MNPD was short 212 officers. Now, they are short 92 officers.
“A fully staffed police department is key,” Southeast Precinct Commander Carlos Lara said. “When we have the staff to get out there in time, then we’re going to get out there, and the officers, they are doing the very best with what they have.”
Data presented to the Community Oversight Board showed it took an average of 74 minutes for MNPD to respond to all the calls they received in 2022. The response time for emergency calls went from 10 minutes to 15 minutes over the last three years.
The new police precinct, Chief Drake said, will allow officers to respond quickly to emergency calls like burglaries, robberies, and violent crimes.
Right now, Antioch is served by two precincts in Hermitage and South Nashville, which combined, cover 160 square miles.
The new Southeast Precinct will allow the three precincts to cover around 55 square miles each, MNPD said. It is the ninth MNPD precinct and the first in nearly 10 years.
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