by Amanda Chin
*disclaimer full credit to News Channel 9 ABC News link to full article below
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Property crime is on the rise in Nashville after seeing a 15 percent increase last year, and those who live in Music City are fed up.
Meghan Patrick is a singer-songwriter who’s lived in Nashville for seven years. It’s a place she loves and used to feel very safe in, but within two weeks, she experienced two thefts in January.
“Someone broke into my truck and stole my gym bag which I thought was weird. There’s nothing of value in there. None of the less, it felt very violating that someone had my things,” says Patrick.
On Jan. 22, Patrick says a girl stole her purse at a bar in Wedgewood Houston.
“I did call the police and file a report. I just wasn’t really getting a lot of responses. They had told me a detective would reach out and I never really had anybody get back to me, and so I handled it privately,” recalls Patrick.
Fortunately, she got her purse back, but she’s speaking out in hopes that big changes are made.
“I would have a hard time telling any of my, especially my female friends, that this is a great place to visit, and you can go out and feel safe because I don’t feel safe myself right now,” says Patrick.
Patrick especially thinks about the incident that just happened in front of Soho House, where police say two men kidnapped and robbed a woman at gunpoint in January.
“As a woman in this town who often has to go out at night and do stuff like that for my job, it’s really frustrating and it’s very unnerving because it feels like even with taking every possible precaution, it still feels so unavoidable,” says Patrick.
FOX 17 News reached out to Metro Police to get a response to some of Patrick’s concerns with crime.
A spokesperson says these are often crimes of opportunity and advises the public to keep their items secure and always be aware of their surroundings.
As for the police response, the department says there’s not an average wait time for those specific crimes.
While the department is around 170 officers short, they have eight recruitment classes for this calendar year and hope to be fully staffed as soon as possible.
Patrick says just in the seven years she’s been here, she feels these types of crimes have only gotten worse. She says her husband, Mitchell Tenpenny, who’s lived here his whole life, finds it all disheartening.
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