A domestic violence arrest won’t necessarily end your police career in Nashville, reports the Tennessean. You’re more likely to get a few days off. At least 10 Nashville officers have been arrested on domestic violence charges in the last five years. Eight of those were allowed to keep their jobs after their arrests, and the remaining two cases are pending. Discipline for improper conduct stemming from those arrests has ranged from a two- to an eight-day suspension.
But experts on police accountability say departments should have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to their own being arrested on domestic violence charges. And the fact that one officer was arrested twice on domestic violence charges suggests the department’s disciplinary policies may not be adequate. “Unless the case is completely dismissed for lack of credible evidence, I think an officer should be dismissed,” said Samuel Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a nationally recognized scholar on police accountability. “This is a violent crime. It involves the kind of incident officers routinely have to deal with.”