And Chief, whenever y'all get settled, you are recognized to begin.

In this budget hearing.

It's also a true honor to serve as chief of police in the city in which I uh grew up in a city in which I love, and I think it's actually the best city in America.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce leaders in the police department to the Metro uh Chamber Council.

Can everyone hear me okay?

Is it okay?

All right.

Uh with me up front is finance manager Samir Mehik and Captain Kelly Cantrell.

In the gallery, you'll see the leadership of our police department.

We have a lot of people uh that are here tonight, so every district is represented, represented.

Uh we have assistant chief Dwayne Green, Assistant Chief Mike Hager, Deputy Chief Virginia Carrigan, Deputy Chief Keith Stevens.

Uh he's uh not here, but he's represented by Sebastian Gordine, who's the inspector, Deputy Chief Michelle Richter, Deputy Chief Chris Gilder, Deputy Chief Tommy Widener, Deputy Chief Greg Blair, Commander Jason Starling, representing uh the professional accountability office, Mr.

Don Aaron, who everyone knows, and our precinct commanders, Ricky Beardon from Central Precinct, Lee Kendall from West Precinct, Kevin Lovell from South, okay.

Lee Kendall from West.

Sean Richmond from Midtown Hills, uh Anthony McLean from North, uh, Commander Harold Burke from East, Commander Brian Anderson from Madison, Commander Ken Walburn from Hermitage, Commander Byrd from Special Ops, Commander Gibson from training, Captain Michael Vaughn uh in recruitment, and then also with us is Commander Carlos Laura, who will head the new Southeast Precinct uh in 2025.

And also joining with us who stayed with us all evening and has been a great partner with the MNPD is Michael Randolph from the Mental Health Co-op.

He's uh been essential in our partners in care uh program.

These talented individuals are making decisions every day to enhance the safety of our city, and we're grateful uh that they are, and I know you are as well.

I speak with you this evening.

Uh our country is in the midst of National Police Week.

This is Memorial Uh Police Day where we recognize the fallen who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in our job.

Um we uh had a memorial ceremony uh last week.

We had 47 members who have been killed in the line of duty since 1875, plus two service animals, and we pay tribute uh to them.

Uh we also during the week were in Washington, D.C., and our officers that went in the Covenant School was honored as the nation's top cops.

And uh they got an award for that.

It was on Mother's Day, but they also got the Citizen Choice Award, which is almost like an Emmy.

At the end of the presentation, they talk about the Citizen Choice Award and what it means, and then they say, and the winner is the boys from Nashville.

And uh this is an all the nation with NYPD, LAPD, and other agencies across the country.

So I'm so proud of not only the officers that went in Covenant School, but the men and women who every day are working very hard to make this city safe.

I'm also grateful to Mayor O'Connell and Finance Director Kevin Crumbow and members of this council for ensuring that we're able to hire the persons to continue to be a state-of-the-art law enforcement uh department.

Our training is second to none.

Last year, our police department has filled 26 school resource officer vacancies so that permanent SROs are now in every public school and middle school.

And we're also working with Dr.

Battle as of April 15th on a pilot program where we have uh officers in Nealy's bean and Amque as a pilot, and that we're looking to expand into uh all of the uh schools by next year.

Uh we also have the school safety initiative, which is our commitment to keeping schools safe.

We have officers that go to each uh elementary school, and they're there for several hours each day to ensure that our kids are safe.

And it's no secret that that children are important to me.

Uh I have I'm the grandfather of a six-year-old that's right here in this city that goes uh to school here in Nashville, and I it's all hands on deck in my family, and we try to make sure that uh we all are ensuring him, and just like every school, we want to make sure every kid is not only safe but also successful.

Uh one of my most rewarding assignments since being on the police department is doing the police athletic league.

I did that in the 1990s.

Uh, was able to grow uh sports programs, uh most notably a basketball program from a hundred kids to 1,300.

And uh now those uh young men and women are professional athletes, they're principals, they're doctors, uh, they're doing all kinds of things, uh, working with the school board and just doing a lot of great work.

Uh so with that said, we brought back the police activities league, and they're doing some really, really great things too.

Uh just two weeks ago we had our citywide basketball tournament uh for ages 10 to 13.

And what we did, we asked every precinct, the community coordinators to put together a team to represent their part of town.

So Hermitage and West and East and et cetera, all had teams, and they played for a double elimination tournament.

But what I found in this it went beyond basketball.

I could see these kids who didn't hadn't played organized sports as they begin to lose or not have the outcomes they wanted.

They were balling their fists up, they were wanting to quit.

And I could see our officers continuing to coach and continue to build up their spirits, and by the end of the day, you can see them still playing and have a good time.

And that's that sports to me played a big part in my life, but it it helps people develop.

There will be adversarial days, there will be tough days, and that you have to learn to get by those, and and we did just that.

Uh this year we'll be sponsoring a number of events uh throughout the year, track meets during the summer, camps, a youth choir program.

Uh, we're also exploring a culinary club uh for many uh kids.

And so the name has changed from Police Athletic to police activities because we want to bring in as many kids as we can and find a way to connect and keep them engaged.

Um community engagement is one of our three core pillars, and the police activities league is essential in what we do.

Another is the police department partners in care collaboration with the mental health co-op began in 2021, which continues to be a success story.

For those unfamiliar, the program partners with mental health clinicians, with police officers on the on the day and evening shifts, and the unit response to calls where the mental, mental and emotional distress is a factor.

But what we do on this, the mental health clinician takes the lead, and they're able uh to deal with the situation, and the officers are there just in case things go awry.

And we're proud to say that we've had over 20 27,000 calls uh for service.