A Rock and a Hard Place
🪨 Sheriff Hall steps down · Racing on next year's ballot? · Possible state takeover of MNPS · Much more!
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After 24 years of dedicated service, Sheriff Daron Hall leaves office. His Departure comes amid escalating tensions between Metro and the state—a political storm that stands in contrast to the largely nonpartisan approach that defined his career.
From Megan Podsiedlik
Today is Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall’s last day in office. Two weeks ago, Hall announced he is leaving for a private-sector job after serving more than two decades as Nashville’s sheriff. The decision came only two months after he won a seventh four-year term in the August election.
Hall is the longest-serving sheriff in Nashville history. The Metro Council will appoint an interim sheriff in November, and voters will elect a permanent replacement in 2027. Though not explicitly linked, Hall’s departure comes amid a series of contentious developments that have tested the nonpartisan approach that defined his tenure.
Tensions Over ICE Enforcement For starters, Hall has been caught up in the politics of a state deadline requiring every sheriff’s office to sign a 287(g) immigration-enforcement agreement with ICE. Before announcing his departure, the sheriff called it “all politics” but said that if the law required him to enroll, he would.
During the initial ICE operations in Nashville, Hall took a diplomatic approach when speaking to the Metro Council. “We do not arrest, nor do we have arrest powers,” explained Hall, clarifying that the sheriff’s office was not involved in Middle Tennessee’s ICE operations that took place in May 2025.
The only place where the sheriff’s office overlaps with immigration enforcement is when it comes to booking, fingerprinting, and handing over those in custody with ICE detainers. “When you fingerprint someone for any crime, those prints are automatically shared with ICE,” Hall said after explaining that they simply enforce the Secure Communities program, which was expanded nationwide under the Obama administration. “We're not doing any more or less.”
The Struggle With Overcrowding Sheriff Hall has been raising concerns about overcrowding in Metro's prison system since Mayor O'Connell took office in 2023. Since then, there’s been an ongoing back and forth between Metro and the Tennessee Department of Correction, including litigation, regarding the state’s obligation to pick up its prisoners.
The issue is costing Nashville taxpayers money. Mayor Freddie O'Connell’s administration said Metro was "subsidizing the State by more than $5 million a year." Hall signed a sworn statement confirming the cost, asserting that the state pays Metro $41 per inmate per day, while Metro’s own cost was $116-$127 a day per prisoner.
In July, Metro petitioned Davidson County Chancery Court to force TDOC to take custody of 151 state inmates held past the 14-day pickup window set by state law. On July 24, Chancellor Anne Martin sided with Metro and ordered TDOC to take 149 of them within 10 days.
Between a Rock & a Hard Place But overcrowding is still an issue in Nashville. In September, Hall told the Metro Study and Formulating Committee that the office had "major, major, major trouble" keeping staff, and a sergeant was assaulted at the Downtown Detention Center that month.
As Hall tells it, both sides of the political aisle share the blame.
“I don’t even want to debate the politics of whether it should be tough on crime or not,” said Hall in a July interview when speaking about the burden Nashville faces when the state doesn’t collect its prisoners. “Let’s accept for one second that we all want to be tough on crime… Let’s let that be the policy. Then build more prisons. Build the facilities… I don’t care about the politics of it.”
Hall also pointed to the city.
In mid-2020, Metro Council members Freddie O’Connell and Emily Benedict proposed ending the city’s contract with CoreCivic. The company had run the Metro Detention Facility since 1992. Under their plan, the Sheriff’s Office would take over in July 2022. CoreCivic didn’t wait. In a July 6, 2020, letter, CEO Damon Hininger offered a 90-day exit, writing that “we cannot allow our company, more importantly our employees, to be used as a punching bag by political opportunists.” On October 5, 2020, the Sheriff’s Office took over the facility and swore in 118 former CoreCivic employees.
“Y’all remember when we ended that contract?” asked Hall in the July interview. “You’re moving the responsibility to the city to do certain things, build buildings and staffing, hire, and supervise their inmates. If you want people out of the private facilities, you’ve got to build facilities yourself.”
In March 2026, Metro put out a call for contractors to build a new jail of up to $410 million on Harding Place in South Nashville. It would sit on the site of the shuttered Metro Detention Facility, replacing it and the men’s Correctional Development Center. But only $14 million for planning and design has been approved so far, and the target is to finish about 36 months after a contractor is chosen.
Though Hall is optimistic that “the sheriff's office is well positioned for the future with strong, capable, and experienced leadership,” the departure is bittersweet for Nashville’s longstanding sheriff.
🌾 Fall Festival at Brewington Farms RidgeRunner is hosting its first fall festival on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10am to 4pm in Whitleyville, marking the ribbon-cutting for farm operations. Expect hay rides, a petting zoo, face painting, regional vendors, food and music, plus tours of the remaining lots in Brewington and Hawkesbury. It's free; RSVP to get the address and itinerary. (RSVP here)
HEADLINES
- 🏁 The Fairgrounds racing referendum is headed to next year’s ballot. The Election Commission voted 4-0 on Friday to certify the Restore Our Fairgrounds petition, with Republican commissioner Dan Davis abstaining. Staff validated 47,679 of more than 74,000 signatures, well above the 40,194 required. Opponents called the canvassing deceptive and said 2,000+ residents asked to have their signatures removed. Restore Our Fairgrounds leader John Spragens said the group answered every request and removed the signatures it could verify. The fight now moves to Chancery Court, where Chancellor Anne Martin has a show-cause hearing set for October 27. (Banner)
- 🏫 Cepicky doubles down on a possible state takeover of MNPS. On SuperTalk, Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) said, “We’ve already gone after Memphis, and now it’s Nashville’s next.” Cepicky is asking House Speaker Cameron Sexton for a forensic audit of the district to “start the process of looking at taking them over.” He also said he met privately with Superintendent Adrienne Battle and named McGavock, Antioch, and Pearl-Cohn as the worst performers. Most of that meeting was about a takeover, according to Cepicky. MNPS says it has no details or information about the meeting. (WKRN)
- ⚖️ Whiskey Row security guards head to court Tuesday. Six men who worked security at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row are charged with reckless homicide and aggravated assault in the August 2021 death of 22-year-old Dallas “DJ” Barrett. Police say the guards pulled him to the ground and held him down after an altercation, and his death was ruled a homicide by asphyxiation. Their jury trial is set for December 7. (Fox 17)
✹ EARLY VOTING TRACKER
🗳️ Who's Voting Where Through Day 4 of 14: 305,844 early votes statewide, 37,758 in Davidson County. Our early voting tracker updates every morning with counts for all 95 counties, compared with the 2022 and 2018 midterms. Pick your county or look at the whole state to see where turnout stands (See the tracker)
DEVELOPMENT
- Dominium buys North Nashville site for apartments (NBJ)
- East Nashville commercial property at 926 Main St. sells for $4.7M (Post)
- Hamilton Development, Clarion pay $90.7M for former Bridgestone plant in La Vergne, plan 1.5M sf industrial park (Post)
- Two Greenway office building in Cool Springs sells at a loss to Evelyn Capital (NBJ)
- TriStar Centennial unveils $90M expansion of children's and women's hospitals (Tennessean)
✹ PAMPHLETEER TOOLS
Pamphleteer Tools Council Watch tells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote. The Property Tax Calculator tells you what that cost you.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
📖 The Nashville Antichrist Lectures with Peter Thiel @ 6p, Downtown Nashville, Info
🎸 The Linda Lindas @ The Basement East, 8p, $39.64, Info
+ pop punk from Los Angeles
🎸 Brooke Wheeler @ The Basement, 9p, $16.19, Info
+ Nashville shoegaze pop
🪕 Bluegrass Mondays with Kyle Tuttle @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $10, Info
🎸 Undie Monday @ The Underdog, 7p, $5, Info
🪕 The Time Jumpers @ 3rd and Lindsley, 8p, $25.61, Info
💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 7p, Free, Info
🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.