Tenn. Fire Captain Accused of Threatening Police Officers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. --

The Channel 4 I-Team has learned a Nashville fire captain faces disciplinary charges for allegedly making threatening remarks to police officers after he was suspected of being intoxicated near downtown.

In a recorded phone call to police, veteran fire Capt. David Parker can be heard complaining and making several derogatory comments about the officers, who picked him up Aug. 30 on allegations of public intoxication.

The I-Team obtained the recordings and documents that show why Parker is facing the disciplinary action.

"I told them they (police) were a bucket of lowlifes, and that's all there was to it," said Parker on the phone recording.

The phone call came after two Metro police officers responded to the call of a man, matching the captain's description, drunk and stumbling in the road at 5th Avenue and Peabody Street.

The officers gave Parker a choice to go to jail or to a program called Guest House at the nonprofit Room In The Inn.

"Anyone can be brought here that's publicly intoxicated rather than be taken to jail," said Room In The Inn Director Charles Strobel.

In the recordings, Parker is angry the officers took him to Guest House. An incident report states he told the officers, "If they are in Hermitage (at the station where he works), they had better not need his help."

Parker even repeated the words to the officer who took his complaint call.

"I told them they were a bunch of lowlifes and if they ever needed any help, they wouldn't get it from me. That's what I told them," said Parker on the recording.

"That's not very appropriate, given your line of work," the officer said to Parker on the recording.

"No, it's not. It's not very appropriate for them to approach me and put me in a police car," said Parker.

Parker didn't want to respond to the allegations but said Wednesday that "I might have said it, but I didn't mean it."

Parker has been placed on desk duty since this incident. After a closed door hearing on Thursday, Nashville's fire chief will now have 10 days to decide if his threatening remarks should cost him his job.

In the Metro police incident reports, the fire captain admitted to being an alcoholic. The fire department has recommended he get counseling through the Metro Employee Assistance Program.