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The city of Memphis says it will not accept federal oversight of its police force. That's after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice that found that Memphis police regularly violate people's constitutional and civil rights. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, says federal investigators found systemic problems in Memphis policing tactics that harm and demean people.
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KRISTEN CLARKE: We found that the police in Memphis use excessive force; that they stop, search and arrest people unlawfully; that their policies have a discriminatory effect on Black people; and that they discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities.
ELLIOTT: The report also says police unnecessarily escalate encounters with children. The findings come after a nearly 17-month investigation into the patterns and practices of Memphis police initiated after the brutal beating death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols after a 2023 traffic stop by a special crime task force. Three fired officers were convicted on federal civil rights charges, and two others pleaded guilty. They were all also Black. Memphis Mayor Paul Young says one incident of police mistreatment is too many, and the city takes the federal report seriously.
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PAUL YOUNG: Some of the types of incidents that are described are simply not acceptable, and our hearts go out to every person who has been impacted by those actions.
ELLIOTT: But Young says Memphis is not ready to negotiate police reforms or enter into a consent decree or other binding legal agreement with the Justice Department.
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YOUNG: It's crucial that the city has the time to do a thorough review and respond to the findings before agreeing to anything that could become a long-term financial burden to our residents and could, in fact, actually slow down our ongoing efforts to continuously improve our police department.
ELLIOTT: The acting U.S. attorney in west Tennessee, Reagan Fondren, acknowledges the city cooperated with the investigation and made changes after Tyre Nichols was killed. At the time, it fired the officers involved, released video, and dismantled the so-called Scorpion unit tasked with combating violent crime, an ongoing struggle in Memphis. But Fondren says that's not enough to address the systemic problems uncovered.
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REAGAN FONDREN: The investigation, however, does not reveal small changes that need to be made. They are a pattern and a practice, which requires significant changes and significant investments in reform.
ELLIOTT: Civil rights activists in Memphis see the federal findings as a vindication.
AMBER SHERMAN: I think now a lot of people will actually believe us because the Justice Department said so, but it's been happening here for such a long time.
ELLIOTT: That's local organizer Amber Sherman.
SHERMAN: I think the main thing that folks in Memphis feel when it comes to policing is that they know, when they come into contact with police, that they're going to be discriminated against, that they're going to probably be brutalized, and it's probably going to be by someone who looks like them.
ELLIOTT: Sherman says restoring the public trust will require more drastic changes in Memphis policing.
Debbie Elliott, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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