Nashville schools reject license plate reader safety recommendation

A new Metro Nashville Police Department report makes several suggestions for enhancing safety at Metro Nashville Public Schools, including forming a new school safety advisory committee, expanding an emergency notification system and incorporating surveillance technology like license plate readers.

Those are just some of the nearly 20 recommendations in the report, which comes a little over a year after a 17-year-old Antioch High School student fatally shot a 16-year-old classmate , and then himself, in late January 2025. Weeks after the fatal school shooting, the Metro Nashville Council passed a resolution requesting the school safety review .

"After the tragedies our city has experienced, it's important that we take every opportunity to strengthen school safety, which is why I sponsored the resolution requesting this review to ensure we were taking a comprehensive look at our policies and practices," District 26 Council member Courtney Johnston, the resolution's main sponsor, said in a statement. "Now, the focus needs to be on action. I look forward to hearing from MNPS about what they plan to implement, when those steps will occur, and the reasoning behind any recommendations they choose not to pursue."

The school district, meanwhile, says it's still reviewing the recommendations, which were shared publicly last week shortly after being provided to the district.

"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 carefully through the lens of operational feasibility and student safety to determine which, if any, should be pursued," school district spokesperson Sean Braisted said.

But Braisted said district leaders have already rejected one of them outright: the suggestion to incorporate license plate reader technology.

Here's what the district is saying.

'We would question the value of installing license plate readers at schools'

The MNPD report calls for "enhanced technology improvements," specifically the use of surveillance tools like license plate readers or the Fusus system, which pulls real-time video footage from certain cameras in its network and sends it directly to police.

The report says integrating the technology would be "extremely beneficial to help detect stolen cars and wanted persons on school property."

Surveillance tools like license plate readers have become steadily less palatable among a growing contingency of the Metro Nashville Council over the past year or so. Some council members have said they don't trust that the system won't be misused, particularly by federal immigration authorities like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The group narrowly declined a contract with Fusus in late 2024 . And more recently, council members voted down a resolution that would have funded the replacement of 15 existing video cameras downtown.

The school district is expressing the same skepticism.

"We would question the value of installing license plate readers at schools," Braisted said. "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. Placing this technology on school property could heighten those concerns and undermine trust with families."

Braisted said in part, that's because the school district operates under an agreement with the police department limiting the use of surveillance technology on campuses, which he shared with The Tennessean March 11.

That document grants MNPD access to real-time security camera footage and video recordings, but only for "occurring, impending and/or imminent" health or safety emergencies.

The agreement lists things like active shooters, bomb threats or "any other immediate threat to life, limb or safety of building occupants" as examples of health or safety emergencies. It's not clear whether something like tracking a stolen car would qualify, based on that list.

"For these reasons, this is not a recommendation the district can support or pursue at this time without a more compelling rationale and meaningful steps to address those concerns," Braisted said.

What else is MNPD recommending?

The first recommendation listed in the report is to create a school safety advisory committee, made up of subject matter experts from MNPD and other law enforcement agencies, the city's emergency response offices, school district staff, the Metro Nashville Council and "other partners deemed necessary with a vested interest in school safety."

That committee would make recommendations on current practices and policies, research and benchmarking, policy development, implementation strategies for training and infrastructure upgrades, and community engagement, according to the report.

"The implementation of this group would allow any gaps in safety and security to be magnified utilizing a more holistic approach to create a safe, supportive environment for students and staff," the report reads.

The report also recommends expanding the district's artificial intelligence-powered weapon detection software, Omnialert, to add more cameras and upgrade to newer software. The report says this could help schools achieve broader campus-wide monitoring with better quality images.

The same system was installed in Antioch High, and school district officials said it failed to detect the shooter's gun on the day of the deadly shooting.

The report's other recommendations include instituting a clear bag policy on campuses, requiring training for all school district staff, conducting individual site assessments and more.

Mayor: 'This has not been a standing still moment'

Braisted emphasized that the school district has already made significant investments to strengthen school safety and security practices, especially in recent years.

That's a notion Mayor Freddie O'Connell agreed with when asked about the recommendations on March 6. He said he hoped they might have "said more about the alignment that's already been in place" between MNPD and school district.

Some investments came just last year. In the wake of the Antioch High shooting, the Metro Nashville Public Schools board unanimously approved installing Evolv , a concealed weapon detection system, in all district high schools. About seven months later, the board unanimously approved expanding the scanners to all public middle school campuses, too .

The report recommends continuing these efforts.

"I'll just be clear, this has not been a standing still moment," O'Connell said. "We have been working steadily over the past several years to go ahead and make advancements on school safety, and I hope that that is recognized by our friends on the Metro Council as this report arrives."

Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him with questions, tips and story ideas at ahornbostel@tennessean.com .

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MNPD urges tech upgrades, advisory group for school safety