Episode 13 - Nashville PD

Episode 12- Nashville, TN PD

https://youtu.be/SfpqQByCtJU

Hello again and Welcome back to Real Talk – Behind the Badge.  I’m Tim, a military vet and retired police Detective Sergeant.    This is the third video in a new part of our Real Talk and what we intend to do is a little something extra with our videos. We will be evaluating everything at the end of the video to tell you exactly what we feel was illegal, police misconduct, mistakes, etc. We hope to show the public that good cops aren’t afraid to call out the actions of bad cops and get them retrained, disciplined or even fired. Today, we’re going to view police body cams footage from officers of the Nashville, TN Police Department. A woman and her brother are stopped at a private business to pick up items they deliver every night when they are stopped by an Officer Lehnert.  The original video is on YouTube by John Eagle & Reba Audits 51-50 5-0. I can say up front, this officer needs to learn the law. He has no business training new officers. I have cut out some of the video where there is nothing going on to save your time, so, let’s get going and you can chime in at the end with your comments. We encourage everyone to leave a comment! If you have a video you would like us to analyze, please send it to MainStreetBusGrp@gmail.com.

Now let’s breakdown and analyze the different parts of this video that were illegal or basically stupid:

1. Officer Lehnert is basically telling Reba (the woman), “Give up your Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and do everything I tell you to do no matter how legal it is, and I’ll let you go.” This is a professional police officer? Where did he learn his law enforcement skills?
2. Officer Lehnert told the woman she was OBLIGATED to talk to him because he was a police officer. No one is legally obligated to say anything to a police officer.
3. Officer Lehnert told the lady he had the right to detain her because she wouldn’t cooperate with him. No one is legally obligated to cooperate with an investigation unless LEGAL directives are given and in this case, NO legal directives were given.  He had no right to detain, and, at least he didn’t put her in cuffs.
4. Lady asked for supervisor at least 4 times. Officer Lehnert stated he would only do it if she gave him her I.D. first.  This is at least totally unprofessional and may even violate their department policies.  Without probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a crime, which he didn’t have, he can ask but not demand an I.D.
5. Officer Lehnert told the woman she had to answer his questions. He told her as a police officer he has the authority.  Again, no one is legally obligated to answer any questions to a police officer.
6. Officer Lehnert kept the woman’s brother from doing his job and told him he wouldn’t get his I.D. back until he got the woman’s I.D. Again, totally illegal and unprofessional.
7. Officer Lehnert never stated what crime he had a suspicion of. Again, like many of these videos, these officers think they can detain and demand I.D. for just plain suspicion, which is totally false.
8. Officer Lehnert tries think up ways to arrest her, including trespassing and “resisting a cop/stop”
9. Officer Lehnert told the woman, “ If you refuse to I.D., I have to take you to jail.” If he believed this, he really needs retraining bad- and it’s totally unprofessional.  Police are allowed to lie in some circumstances, but not in these type situations, just to get your way. The woman was right, this was just pure ego.

Later, Reba filed a written complaint against Officer Lehnert.  Internal affairs did investigate.

Sometime later she called the department to get answers as to the findings of the complaint.  They were professional.

It was found that there was a decision against Officer Lehnert of “inefficient performance of duties” on two charges and suspended for five days without pay.  The two charges were “Deficient Performance & (Lack of) Knowledge of Law.”

I congratulate the Nashville Police Department for their handling of this complaint. Great job!

• The other officers that were present- did they understand there was no violations of law? If they did, why didn’t they take immediate steps to remedy the situation?
• Officer Lehnert should NOT have been a training officer as he doesn’t know the law himself. What are the standards for becoming a training officer?

Now, again, the other officers present are just as guilty if they knew what was going on and didn’t try to intervene to stop what they knew or should have known was an illegal detention.

So there you have it!  One of my intentions is for police officers to learn from the mistakes made and discussed here.  If departments would like to use these videos for training, please let me know.  Make sure to Hit subscribe and share your thoughts in the comments.  If you are in law enforcement, active or retired, let us know.

For more information and videos, go to realtalkbehindthebadge.com

You can view all our podcasts on YouTube, “Real Talk Behind the Badge” as we make them.  If you hit subscribe, you’ll be notified of each podcast.  Please hit the like button also. We’re also on Facebook at Real Talk Behind the Badge where you can also view all our podcasts.

Thanks to all our brothers and sisters behind the badge.  This is Real Talk. 

Signing off until next time.