Memphis' mayor pushes back against feds' calls for major reforms of city's police force

[December 06, 2024]  By ADRIAN SAINZ and JONATHAN MATTISE

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis' mayor pushed back Thursday against the need for a Justice Department deal to enact reforms in light of the scathing findings of an investigation into the Memphis Police Department, saying the city has already made hundreds of positive changes since the beating death of Tyre Nichols.

Although he didn’t rule out eventually agreeing to a consent decree with the Justice Department, Mayor Paul Young said he thinks the city can make changes more effectively without committing to a binding pact. The 17-month federal investigation launched after Nichols’ death found that Memphis officers routinely use unwarranted force and disproportionately target Black people.

“We believe we can make more effective and meaningful change by working together with community input and independent national experts than with a bureaucratic, costly, and complicated federal government consent decree,” Young said at a news conference.

His remarks came minutes after a top Justice Department official warned that the DOJ could sue to require reforms of Memphis’ police force should the city refuse to sign an agreement.

With a more police-friendly administration about to take over in Washington, the city could be biding its time in the hopes that the Justice Department under Donald Trump could let the matter drop. Neither Justice Department nor city officials were willing to delve into that issue — the mayor said he would have the same position regardless of the presidential election's outcome; and acting U.S. Attorney Reagan Fondren said federal prosecutors will continue their work regardless of who's in the White House.

The investigation determined that police in Tennessee's second-largest city have violated citizens’ constitutional rights and civil rights, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said at a Thursday news conference, describing the lengthy review as “comprehensive and exhaustive.”

The police department's practices violate the Constitution and federal law, and “harm and demean people and they promote distrust, undermining the fundamental safety mission of a police department,” Clarke said.

The fatal beating of Nichols by officers after he ran away from a January 2023 traffic stop exposed serious problems in police department, from its use of excessive force to its mistreatment of Black people in the majority-Black city, according to the investigation report released Wednesday.

Nichols, who was kicked, punched and beaten with a baton, died three days after his encounter with police. Nichols was Black, as are the former officers involved in his beating. His death led to national protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the U.S., and directed intense scrutiny towards the Memphis Police Department, more than half of whose members are Black, including Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis.

The federal probe looked at the department’s “pattern or practice” of how it uses force and conducts stops, searches and arrests, and whether it engages in discriminatory policing.

Mayor Paul Young, center, speaks during a news conference with Tannera Gibson, left, and Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis, right, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

It found that officers would punch, kick and use other force against people who were already handcuffed or restrained, which it described as unconstitutional but which were nearly always approved after the fact by supervisors. Officers resort to force likely to cause pain or injury “almost immediately in response to low-level, nonviolent offenses, even when people are not aggressive,” investigators determined.

“Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve,” according to the report.

Memphis officers cite or arrest Black people for loitering or curfew violations at 13 times the rate it does for white people, and cite or arrest Black people for disorderly conduct at 3.6 times the rate of white people, the report said.

Police video showed officers pepper-spraying Nichols and hitting him with a Taser before he ran from a traffic stop. Five officers chased down Nichols just steps from his home as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries.

The officers were fired, charged in state court with murder, and indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges. Two pleaded guilty to federal charges under plea deals. The other three were convicted at trial on split verdicts.

Although the report mentions the Nichols case, it also describes others, including one in which officers pepper-sprayed, kicked and fired a Taser at an unarmed man with a mental illness who tried to take a $2 soda from a gas station.

The investigation cited police training that “primed officers to believe that force was the most likely way to end an encounter,” rather than talking to a suspect to de-escalate a situation. In one training example, officers were told that, “If a fight is unavoidable, hurt them first and hurt them bad.”

In a Wednesday letter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the city attorney said Memphis had received the a DOJ's consent decree request but wouldn't agree to one until it had thoroughly reviewed the report.

A consent decree requires reforms overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge. The federal oversight can continue for years, and violations could result in fines paid by the city.

Other police departments have faced federal investigations in recent years, including Minneapolis' after the killing of George Floyd, and the police force in Louisville, Kentucky, following the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.

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Mattise reported from Nashville. Associated Press reporter Kristin M. Hall contributed from Chicago.

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