MNPD Arrested Unhoused Inglewood Neighbors for "Felony Camping" During Heatwave
Two Nashvillians were arrested for living outside on Sunday, June 28th, court records show. They had been staying underneath a park pavilion in South Inglewood Park. The temperature reached 92 degrees that day. One of the individuals was charged twice in one day with "felony camping" at the location, and an additional charge for evading arrest. He was tased by MNPD officers.
Tennessee's public-camping ban has been ratcheted up in stages: first enacted in 2012, it was elevated from a misdemeanor to a Class E felony for state property in 2020, then expanded in 2022 to cover all public property — making Tennessee the first state in the nation to treat sleeping outside as a felony. That Class E felony now carries up to six years in prison, a $3,000 fine, and the permanent loss of voting rights. Lawmakers have continued adding penalties since, passing further measures in 2025 to speed the clearing of encampments and expand liability around unhoused people.
According to Open Table Nashville, who keeps records on enforcement against the unhoused, the last known time MNPD enforced this law was in 2023. And that appears to be only known citation for it prior to Sundays arrests. Open Table Nashville posted an Instagram video about the incident.
The neighborhood association Inglewood Mutual Aid denounced the arrests, which took place in the pavilion where they hold their potlucks, which I attend as an Inglewood resident. The individuals who were arrested had been present for at the Mutual Aid meetings and were polite and respectful of people who wished to use the pavilion for gatherings. The pavilions are not eligible for reservation, but in my experience as an attendee, Inglewood Mutual Aid has never experienced any difficulties with our unhoused neighbors there. I spent much of my first meeting eating with an unhoused neighbor who stays in the area. He was not one of the people arrested on Sunday.
Inglewood Mutual Aid released a statement on Instagram this morning denouncing Metro's actions.
MNPD has historically not been willing to charge Nashvillians for "felony camping", and the recent budget fights over the Nashville Downtown Partnership (NDP) were based heavily in the Tennessee Highway Patrol's (THP) willingness to charge people with a law that criminalizes homelessness.
And as recently as this month, the Metro Council made it abundantly clear that there were grave concerns with hiring off-duty highway patrol officer have cited at least eleven Nashvillians with "felony camping" in the downtown core. It was repeatedly asked on the Council floor why MNPD could not be used to patrol downtown, a department that appears to have a standing policy to not enforce these cruel laws.
MNPD appears to no longer have this policy.
Under Mayor O'Connell, MNPD now appears to be in the business of explicitly criminalizing homelessness. It is an extraordinary pivot of public policy without clear cause. Rumors about what or who may have led to MNPD deciding to charge Nashvillians with felony camping for being under a public pavilion on a day that reached 92 degrees are being investigated.
▢ Temperature at Nashville's John C. Tune Station (KJWN) peaked at 92°F on June 28, 2026.CreditWeather Underground — www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/tn/nashville/KJWN/date/2026-6-28
The heatwave is relevant not just because it exacerbates the senseless cruelty of enforcing laws designed to criminalize people who have been failed by Nashville's housing and homelessness-serving system (Nashville's Office of Homeless Services is currently under a major internal audit for financial anomalies that have been brought to light over the past year).
Heat is extremely well documented as contributing to mental health crises for all people, those with and without homes, as per a large national study in JAMA Psychiatry of 2.2M with health insurance. For people living outside, who are far less likely to have health insurance, the risks are compounded: a 2024 study found heat-attributable mortality among people experiencing homelessness was orders of magnitude greater than for the general population.
Per court records, MNPD did not appear to leverage their existing mental health co-response services to engage these neighbors.
Rumors are circulating as to who was responsible for having MNPD pursue charges against these individuals by force.
Nashville People's Journal is pursuing more information on this subject to understand more fully whether it was Inglewood neighbors who prompted this dehumanizing and cruel enforcement of a state law designed to punish people for being failed by our society.
NPJ will never release identifying information of private citizens who have a reasonable expectation of privacy for their actions.
But we do believe it is pertinent to understand how and why our public policies are selectively enforced, and as such we have already submitted public records requests to learn more about how these horrific events came about.