TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Mar 31, 2025

Metro Nashville Council members and safety advocates have called for increased traffic enforcement in the past. Now new data from the police department shows that officers have stopped 11,496 drivers since the beginning of the year — roughly 3,000 more than at the same point in 2024. The police department says it is committed to focusing efforts on the most dangerous driving behaviors including speeding, reckless driving and impaired driving,” according to the Nashville Banner. The data also shows disparities in the stops. White and Black drivers are being stopped at rates higher than their share of the population. But while less than 0.4% of the stops involving white drivers led to a vehicle search, 2.9% of stops for Black drivers did. Hispanic drivers made up nearly 13% of stops, with 24% of those being arrested — a higher rate than Black or white drivers. Police says that disparity is largely due to arrests for driving without a license.