"I hope I die on duty." "They call me Brown Sugar or Aunt Jemima, never by my first name." "He unzipped his pants and said he could have any woman he wanted and nothing would happen to him." "I was terrified he was going to rape me."

This is just a small sampling of what current and former employees of the Metro Nashville Police Department have told me.

In April 2020, I was contacted by an employee of the department who told me how she was sexually assaulted and harassed by her Captain. Since then, thirty-seven more victims have contacted me. In addition to sexual assault and harassment, they have told me their stories of gender and racial discrimination, intimidation and retaliation. As part of both my and Silent No Longer TN's advocacy efforts, we have traveled to victims to conduct intake interviews, accompanied victims to interviews with the Tennessee Bureaus of Investigation, paid fees for public records requests, and obtained legal counsel in order to protect ourselves and protect the anonymity of victims, and incurred other miscellaneous expenses.

Silent No Longer TN is an all volunteer organization, and all expenses are paid for my volunteers. In order to better serve these victims and any future victims, we are attempting to raise money for any legal fees, travel expenses, public service announcements and other expenses.

The women and men risk their lives to keep us and our families safe. The deserve our support, and they deserve a work environment where they don't have to be concerned about being sexually assaulted, discriminated against or potentially losing their job because they speak out about corruption. If you are able, PLEASE consider donating what you can so we can continue to help these victims, and help victims in other departments across the state of Tennessee.