On January 9, 2026—as protests and vigils were held in Nashville and around the country for Renee Good, a US citizen killed by an ICE officer two days earlier in Minneapolis—Mayor Freddie O’Connell filed four resolutions to accept a total of $3.38 million in donations to MNPD for surveillance and policing equipment from the Nashville Downtown Partnership (NDP), the latest update to the so-called “Surveillance MOU” scandal.
The resolutions are an effort to acquire the direct permissions needed for Metro Nashville to “accept” the donations referenced in the proposed MOU the Mayor's Office submitted discretely the Friday before Thanksgiving. Indications are that they will not be pursuing an MOU anymore once the permission is obtained.
The MOU was purportedly being sought to “limit” NDP from using the grant for things the Mayor's Office was concerned about. However, the contents and working documents obtained via public records request revealed that the function was more clearly to require NDP to purchase specific surveillance and policing tech and donate it to MNPD with the grant funds.
The resolutions submitted on January 9 are as follows.
RS2026-13811: 15 Axis video cameras — $150,000
RS2026-13812: 1 Terradyne Gurkha armored rescue vehicle — $430,000
RS2026-13813: 2 ATC 48’ mobile command trailers + 2 Ford F-550s — $2,000,000
RS2026-13814: 1 International CV command/equipment truck — $800,000
On the same day they submitted the resolutions for the policing gear, O’Connell held a press conference about his new Community Safety Task Force wherein he declined to take the opportunity to denounce the killing of Renee Good. Instead, he attributed similar violence against innocent people at the hands of immigration agents to “federal authorities working without close local coordination.”
The problem isn’t ICE’s abject lack of accountability to meaningful use of force doctrines and constitutional due process norms, as O’Connell appears to view it, but that ICE isn’t working closely enough with local agencies.
The insight into his perspective on federal law enforcement comes as evidence is mounting that the equipment O’Connell is pursuing via the NDP donations is explicitly designed to help local law enforcement collaborate more effectively with ICE.
View these proposed resolutions accepting the donations here.
The proposed equipment flows through Governor Lee’s Downtown Public Safety Grant, the latest round of “Violent Crime Intervention Fund” (VCIF) monies from the State. The same grant structure allocated $100 million to the Memphis Safe Task Force—the federal-state operation that includes ICE.
When Lee launched the VCIF in 2022, he was explicit about its connection to immigration enforcement:
Much of the violence in Tennessee is related to and connected to drug crime, drug trafficking. So long as we have the situation that we have going on in the border, we are going to have drug traffic-related crime going on all across this country.
On January 9, 2026, the same day O’Connell’s resolutions were filed and he gave his press conference, the Knoxville News Sentinel revealed that TN House Speaker Cameron Sexton has been coordinating with the White House’s Stephen Miller since “even before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived in Memphis last year.”
[1/29/26: A clarification has been made about the precise funding mechanism, though the original version is understood to be substantively correct, it is being modified here to avoid any confusion. See full note here on the change.]
The surge in ICE presence began with the “Memphis Safe Task Force”, an entity that is funded by the same pool of VCIF funds O’Connell is tapping by way of the Nashville Downtown Partnership. The Memphis Safe Task Force launched on Sept. 30, 2025.
The surge in ICE presence began with the “Memphis Safe Task Force.” On Oct. 2nd, 2025, Governor Lee announced that $100M from the Downtown Public Safety Grant fund would be “allocated to the Memphis area” to “support the ongoing Memphis Safe Task Force.” The same announcement declared that Metro Nashville (or a BID operator) was entitled to apply for $15M for its Central Business Improvement District.
The Memphis Safe Task Force launched on Sept. 29, 2025.
The first anyone heard about these funds being applied for, outside of the Mayor’s Office, MNPD, and the Nashville Downtown Partnership, was when the news was broken on this Instagram page that the Mayor’s Office had submitted an MOU to pass through surveillance and policing equipment from the Nashville Downtown Partnership.
The Mayor’s Office had slipped the resolution in the Friday before Thanksgiving and a special election that threw off the Council calendar, arriving more than a month after the grant application was allegedly due.
It is now clearer than ever before that these funds are being used in other cities for surveillance and policing of immigrant populations in direct coordination with ICE, a fact that makes the Mayor’s Office’s extraordinarily strange behavior in presenting and defending these funds make more sense.
Rather than simply stating that their purpose was to help support ICE operations in Nashville and allowing the Metro Council to vote their conscience on the topic, the Mayor’s Office, in an era of plummeting crime rates, has failed to offer any meaningful explanation for why they are pursuing these massive surveillance and policing purchases now and in this roundabout way.
Without an alternative explanation, the natural question is: is the Mayor’s Office obtaining this policing equipment because the State (and by extensions the White House) is requiring it of them in order to help ICE track Nashville’s immigrants? And if so, why is Mayor O’Connell complying?
Allie Feinberg broke the story on Friday that TN House Speaker Cameron Sexton has been working with Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, to change Tennessee’s legislative landscape. The timing aligns with the VCIF DPSG [see clarification note here] monies that Mayor O’Connell has been caching in all his remaining local political good will to access. It is unclear whose good will it is that he is trying to obtain in exchange.
Stephen Miller has been documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center sharing white nationalist propaganda with Breitbart editors, including articles promoting the "great replacement" conspiracy theory. He designed the Trump administration's first-term family separation policy and travel ban.
O’Connell’s Response to Renee Good’s Killing
When Mayor O’Connell was asked about Renee Good’s killing at a press conference on January 9—the same day he submitted the surveillance resolutions, two days after the shooting, after multiple vigils had been held in Nashville—he said:
[TS 19:52]: I haven’t looked at the video and details of the case. That will probably go through an investigation process… I will never be the person to comment first on really complicated matters.
He went on to tell reporters:
[TS 20:18]: One of the points of apprehension I’ve had about federal authorities working without close local coordination is that tragic incidents might be more likely.
O’Connell spoke about the killing in starkly different terms than other Tennessee and national Democrats. At no point did he denounce the killing, or even acknowledge that, two days after it occurred (and after multiple vigils and protests has taken place in its wake) that he had any substantive knowledge of the subject.
Instead, it appears he took the opportunity to call for more “coordination” between federal agencies and local law enforcement, rather than speak out against the state violence that has sent shockwaves throughout the country.
Nationally, Democrats are calling for radical overhaul of DHS and ICE. US Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) issued a statement on the day of Good’s killing:
Today’s incident is just what I feared: out-of-control, masked ICE agents fatally misusing their authority and inflaming our communities. Today, it happened in Minneapolis, but it could be Memphis, which also has an outsized and aggressive ICE presence.
The Mayor of Minneapolis’ reaction has gone viral, calling for ICE to “Get the fuck out of Minnesota.”
To date, O’Connell’s office has not released any formal statement regarding Good’s killing, nor has {Rich Text} been able to find further public comments from him on the topic.
The Timing Problem: Crime Is Falling
On the same day Good was killed, the Nashville Banner reported crime rates have been steadily decreasing. In the past year, “homicides fell to their lowest level in a decade, while robberies and burglaries were as rare as they’ve been since the 1960s.”
With the crime rate plummeting, what is causing O’Connell to spend his political capital fighting tooth and nail for more surveillance and policing technology that there is no demonstrable need for?
Some ask: is it just to appease the MAGA Republicans who have baselessly accused him of supporting undocumented immigrants?
Local immigrant advocates have told me that the accusations are astounding given that Mr. O’Connell has demonstrated virtually no meaningful support to Nashville’s immigrants since his election.
Asked for an example, they pointed to how his Office of New Americans has remained vacant since at least July of 2025, coinciding with when he hired a new Chief of Staff that had previously been appointed to positions by Governor Bill Lee and TN House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
Timeline: January 7–9, 2026
Wednesday, January 7
This Substack reveals O’Connell’s Chief of Operations and Performance’s deep professional ties to the data infrastructure that enables ICE
Nashville Banner reports crime at historic lows
Renee Good killed by ICE agent in Minneapolis
Andy Ogles berates Minneapolis Mayor and (somehow) ties him to Mayor O’Connell on X: “Minneapolis Mayor Frey and Nashville Mayor O’Connell are cut from the same cloth.”
Thursday, January 8
Tennessee Outlook: “Hundreds gather at Nashville vigil to mark death of Renee Good”
Council Member Terry Vo: “Renee mattered, and she was murdered… in this past year, several of our legal verifiers have had weapons pointed on them simply for documenting what is happening in our neighborhoods. And now, the entire world has witnessed a legal observer—someone who has showed up out of care, courage and commitment—lose her life. ICE is at fault. Across the country, the pattern is the same.”
Friday, January 9
Knoxville News Sentinel reveals TN House Speaker Cameron Sexton has been coordinating since last fall with White House’s Stephen Miller
Mayor O’Connell files for donations of $3.38M of surveillance and policing funds, originating from Governor Lee’s
VCIFDPSG [see clarification note here].Mayor O’Connell’s response on the killing of Renee Good: “I will never be the person to comment first on really complicated matters,” and he calls for “more coordination” between local law enforcement and federal agencies
O’Connell’s call for more coordination between federal agencies and local law enforcement came on the very same day it was revealed that there has been explicit coordination between Tennessee State Officials and Stephen Miller. Miller, a Senior Advisor in the White House, has been documented sharing white nationalist propaganda by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Deep Irony: Then vs. Now
Mayor O’Connell won many supporters during his time on Metro Council speaking out in support of the unhoused, for the right to data privacy, and against the “surveillance state.”
Here is a post of his from 2021 decrying New Orleans’ adoption of a mass surveillance system:
“Strong communities are better for safety than a surveillance state,” he wrote. “We can build safer communities through smart, strategic investments that don’t involve spying on each other.”
When on Metro Council representing District 19, O’Connell “regularly publicly railed against surveillance in his social media posts” and even “advised his followers on Twitter to obtain memberships to the privacy watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation.” He warned Nashville about the dangers of public-private surveillance partnerships like what has emerged in New Orleans through Project NOLA. That surveillance apparatus now includes more than 5,000 cameras across the city, with New Orleans purchasing cameras from vendors including Axis Communications.
One of the resolutions O’Connell has submitted to Council for approval on January 20: $150,000 for fifteen “Axis Video Cameras,” costing $10,000 per unit. Precisely the same equipment detailed in the article he cited.
The resolution describes these as “traditional video cameras, consistent with existing public safety cameras, for departmental use”—language that appears designed to sidestep the mandatory public hearing required for surveillance equipment.
The Legal End-Run
No such “traditional camera” exception exists in Metro Code Section 13.08.080. The ordinance defines “surveillance technology” to include “closed-circuit television cameras” and “video and audio monitoring and/or recording technology, such as surveillance cameras”—which would plainly cover the Axis cameras. The only exemption for cameras applies to “manually operated non-wearable handheld digital cameras... whose functionality is limited to manually capturing and manually downloading video and/or audio recordings”—not fixed surveillance cameras.
That public hearing requirement was authored by Councilman Dave Rosenberg in 2017 through ordinance BL2017-646. As the Nashville Scene reported, Rosenberg “wrote the city ordinance requiring council approval and a public hearing before Metro installs new surveillance technology.” Rosenberg is now O’Connell’s Director of Legislative Affairs—the same official who has been required to shred his credibility defending and deflecting the administrations push for this technology across multiple Council meeting.
The new resolutions do not invoke Metro Code 13.08.080. It is not clear if the Mayor’s Office will be requesting the required public hearing, or if they will somehow claim these purchases “don’t count” as “surveillance.” The ordinance Rosenberg wrote contains precise definitions, and by any reasonable reading, all four of the resolutions likely qualify.
Who Is O’Connell’s Audience?
Speculation has circulated that O’Connell’s muted responses stem from self-interest and a preference for avoiding conflict. In the wake of Good’s killing, TN Congressman Andy Ogles denounced Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Ogles posted on X:
Minneapolis Mayor Frey and Nashville Mayor O’Connell are cut from the same cloth. It’s deeper than rhetoric, its political decisions intended to betray ICE and Federal partners. ICE agents are in danger because of them. Illegal aliens are NOT our friends. They should be arrested immediately.
This wasn’t Ogles’ first attack on O’Connell. Following the May 2025 ICE raids in South Nashville that swept up 196 people—less than half of whom had prior criminal convictions or pending charges, with only 7 reported to have “serious” convictions—Ogles launched an ongoing campaign against the mayor on fabricated charges that he supports undocumented immigrants.
During a May 14 Homeland Security Committee briefing, Ogles asked Secretary Kristi Noem if aiding undocumented immigrants to evade law enforcement was a crime. When Noem replied “Yes,” Ogles immediately announced he would request investigations by the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, declaring in his newsletter that O’Connell was “blatantly obstructing ICE officials” and had “crossed a dangerous line.”
In July, Noem held a press conference at Nashville’s ICE field office where she declared O’Connell’s “priorities are completely screwed up, and he doesn’t deserve to be mayor” and called his actions “shameful” and “dangerous.”
The attacks centered on Executive Order 30, which required Metro departments to report federal immigration communications within 24 hours. When the city briefly published reports that included some agent names—quickly removed once discovered—Ogles and Noem accused O’Connell of “doxxing” federal agents. Despite months of pressure, O’Connell maintained Executive Order 30 and told reporters he was “not particularly concerned” the investigation would find wrongdoing.
It would be unfair to say that the pressure has not been on Mayor O’Connell. But it seems unfathomable for an elected Democrat in today’s political climate to believe that appeasing die-hard Trump acolytes accomplishes anything but inviting them to come back and take even more.
The Call Is Coming from Inside 1 Public Square
Some have pointed out that if you look at the two most powerful people in O’Connell’s administration—his Chief of Staff and the Chief of Operations and Performance—many of the confounding policy decisions make perfect sense.
Masami Tyson, Chief of Staff
O’Connell’s appointment of Masami Tyson as Chief of Staff arrived the same month that his office appears to have vacated the Office of New Americans. In 2023, Tyson accepted an appointment from Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton to serve on the state-controlled Nashville Airport Authority board—a body created through legislation that courts later ruled unconstitutional for violating Tennessee’s home rule protections. That airport takeover was part of a suite of bills explicitly aimed at curtailing Nashville’s autonomy after the city’s metro council rejected a bid to host the 2024 Republican National Convention.
By agreeing to serve on Sexton’s board, Tyson lent her credibility to what was effectively a partisan attack of Nashville homerule. That O’Connell would then elevate her to his administration’s most senior staff position—announced in the same month Noem was attacking him over immigration—suggests either a tone-deaf approach to coalition politics or a deliberate signal of accommodation to the Republican supermajority that has spent years undermining the city he was elected to lead.
Kristin Wilson, Chief of Operations and Performance
Then there is Chief of Operations and Performance, the woman many identify as the true shadow Mayor of Nashville, two administrations running.
Breaking: The Mayor’s Official Coordinating Nashville’s Surveillance MOU Helped Build ICE’s Data Pipeline at LexisNexis
Kristin Wilson, Mayor O’Connell’s Chief of Operations and Performance, is coordinating Nashville’s proposed $15 million surveillance agreement with MNPD and the Nashville Downtown Partnership. The MOU returns to Metro Council on January 20, 2026.
O’Connell retained Kristin Wilson from the Cooper administration. Wilson is married to Whit Wilson, the son of former State Comptroller Justin P. Wilson. The timing of her original hire raises questions: in November 2019, Comptroller Justin Wilson “rang the alarm on the city’s sparse cash reserves and generally criticized Metro’s poor financial shape.”
As the Nashville Scene reported, “Immediately upon taking office, Cooper named Justin Wilson’s daughter-in-law Kristin Wilson chief of operations” to oversee the city’s finances. Whether intentional or not, the appointment placed a family member of the state official responsible for auditing Metro Nashville into a senior position overseeing Metro’s budget—a structural conflict that O’Connell chose to perpetuate (thought Mr. Wilson stepped down as Comptroller in 2021).
Before joining Metro, Wilson oversaw the 2008 integration of ChoicePoint into LexisNexis. That $3.6 billion merger folded together Pinkerton’s labor surveillance apparatus, DBT Online—the Florida contractor behind the 2000 voter purge that the U.S. Civil Rights Commission found disenfranchised thousands of eligible voters—and Latin American citizen databases that Mexican prosecutors alleged were criminally obtained.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions now holds ICE’s $22.1 million contract. According to ICE procurement documents, that contract exists specifically to identify incarcerated immigrants in jurisdictions where “law enforcement agencies and state or local governments... do not share information about real time incarceration of foreign-born nationals with ICE.”
The Community Alternative: The People’s MOU
The Mayor’s Office is pursuing this equipment at the same time that community members have been collecting feedback on how they think the $15M of funds allocated to the District Management Corporation (DMC)—whose budget has 100% oversight by the Metro Council—should be spent.
The line items being voted on come directly from the allowable costs from the actual grant between the DMC and the State of Tennessee. The enforcement mechanism would be an MOU between Metro and the DMC and/or the Nashville Downtown Partnership.
Why the Mayor’s Office would not want the funding to align with direct feedback from the community members impacted by the funding is unclear.
What Council Can Do
Council Members can ask why the surveillance ordinance was not invoked.
Council can defer until a public hearing is held.
Council can require the civil liberties review the law contemplates.
Council can take feedback from The People’s MOU and use the funds in alignment both with the original grant and the desires of Nashville constituents.
Or Council can sign off on it as it is.
The vote is Tuesday, January 20, 2026.