Building BRIDGES
Meet Metro Nashville PD’s First LGBTQ Liaison JAMES GRADY
Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is announcing that it has created the position of LGBTQ Liaison for the department, joining a handful of MNPD officials tasked with outreach to Nashville’s minority communities. Since November, Officer Catie Poole has held this position, quietly beginning to meet with local LGBTQ groups and leaders, and to familiarize fellow officers with her new role. The appointment of an officer whose sole role is to act in the capacity of a liaison to the community, however, marks a bold new commitment on the part of the department. With this appointment, too, Nashville joins many other major metropolitan police departments in having such a liaison: cities from Seattle to Atlanta and Annapolis have had officers in such roles for some time, cities like New York and Washington, D.C., have units devoted to the task. While this is a big step forward for MNPD, it represents the culmination of years of discussion, building upon the community engagement undertaken by LGBTQ leaders within the department. Individuals such as Lieutenant Dave Leavitt and Commander Kay Lokey have often assisted when potential difficulties arose between the department and the community. “Obviously, this has been in the works for a while now, recent events have kind of expedited the process and brought it back into the forefront of discussion,”
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Poole explained. “Ultimately, the goal is to improve the community relations with LGBT community.”
Who Is Catie Poole?
Originally, Poole did not set out to become a police officer. “I was doing pre-law at MTSU, with the notion of possibly going to law school,” she explained. “But when I got to my senior year, I was so tired of school, I couldn’t imagine doing another three even-more-intense years. So I decided to go onto the job market. That’s when I started looking around and decided that I didn’t necessarily want a desk job. I wanted to be out and about and get involved with the community to make a difference where I could. So I looked at the police department and found that to be the best fit.” Around the time she joined the force, Poole started dating Hannah, who is now her wife. “We’ve been married for going on two and a half years now, been together for almost five... She’s a strong supporter so I’m happy for that.” Together, they have built a life and home, literally. “We did just move into our house that we built
JANUARY 2019
