By Ashley Benkarski
NASHVILLE, TN — Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake’s first months as the department’s head haven’t been easy.
His term saw Nashville decimated by tornadoes in early March, followed by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city days after. Months later, demonstrations following the George Floyd murder erupted, exacerbated by more cases of police brutality and systemic injustice.
Then there was the Nashville Christmas bombing that left a crater in the heart of the city and knocked out service for emergency communications and AT&T users, even affecting a few neighboring states.
All this considered, it’s a good thing he said he’s one who enjoys challenges.
Born to a blind father and disabled mother, Drake recalled walking to school for his public education, eventually bussed to Bailey Junior High where he received the distinction of Most Successful in Class and Athlete of the Year by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He was team captain of his school’s football, wrestling and track.
While the prevailing trope of inspiration into the force usually stems from childhood, Drake got involved in law enforcement as the result of a competitive bond with his cousin while they were searching for careers.
A native East Nashvillian, he began working for the city’s police department in 1988, starting out in the John Henry Hale area working crime suppression and street-level narcotics in the Narcotics Division. He didn’t like some of the things required of him such as seizing property, recalling the tears of a child during one of those situations. “I felt like I wasn’t really serving my purpose,” Drake said.
Community-driven, his desire to make more of an impact led him to organize a basketball program for 1,300 youths that drew the attention of the National Football League, he said.
When he decided to venture into leadership, he was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant in 2006. He then took a role in the Office of Professional Accountability before moving on to oversee the Hermitage Investigations Unit examining petty theft to homicide. Again he was promoted, this time to captain and went to field supervisor for a short period of time.
He was appointed Commander of the Hermitage Central Precinct leading the Domestic Violence Division. Last June he assumed the role of deputy chief over the Support Services Bureau and oversaw the Community Services Bureau covering eight precincts. When former MNPD Chief Steve Anderson resigned, he served as the interim Chief before Nashville Mayor John Cooper ultimately tapped him to lead.
This recent promotion to Chief of Police afforded Drake the opportunity to make some necessary changes to the department, such as reestablishing relationships between law enforcement and community members, a vital component to policing. Drake said this community-based approach will continue to build relationships through the Office of Community Engagement and partnerships with Nashville’s diverse religious and ethnic community members.
“It’s my commitment to get out there and develop relationships,” Chief Drake said, pointing out that Nashville’s Kurdish community said they hadn’t had a strong relationship with MNPD in over a decade.
The department has removed crime suppression and flex units and discarded the theory that saturating the community with officers to make arrests would reduce crimes.
“We have a lot of great police officers that put their lives on the line every single day,” Drake said of Eugene Goodman’s efforts to lead insurrectionists away from congress members in the U.S. Capitol riots that took place January 6. “He led those people away to a different direction, and that’s what we do.”
Chief Drake said he’s troubled and disheartened by police brutality that’s been an ongoing issue in the nation for so long. He asked, “What’s the next narrative?”
Answering his question, Chief Drake noted the recent pepper-spraying by police of a 9-year-old girl in Rochester, New York.
“The only thing I can control is what we do here,” he said. To that end, he’s taking steps to prioritize de-escalation tactics and the use of verbal skills in achieving organizational excellence to make sure his officers police fairly and without bias.
