A national campaign targets police departments across several states after the DOJ closed its investigation and withdrew findings from MPD.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “Real safety is about safety for everyone. There’s not a way to have real safety when we don’t have police that don’t just protect and serve, but respect and value the lives of our community members,” said Cardell Orrin, the executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee (Stand TN).
In Memphis, advocates have filed a request to access public records of reported police misconduct and plan to use that data to demand policy and funding changes.
The Justice and Safety Alliance, along with its partner organizations, hopes to enact change by partnering with the ACLU on the Seven States Safety Campaign.
“We need to end the quotas on traffic stops. We need to end violence against children and those with behavioral health crises. We need to transition cops out of those responses,” said Stand TN policy organizer Alex Hensley.
This campaign comes after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) halted its investigation into the Memphis Police Department (MPD) and retracted its findings into whether the department violated the civil or constitutional rights of Memphians.
A year later, the DOJ reported that MPD used excessive force, conducted illegal stops, and targeted Black residents and people with mental health conditions.
“They want to retract the findings, but we know that this has been decades, if not centuries, of challenges with the police department, and especially the Black and brown community,” said Orrin.
Stand TN has already started working with the ACLU to obtain those records from the MPD.
“We’re asking for the administration to continue to actually act on the recommendations of the DOJ regardless of the rescission and to release to the public when those changes will be made,” said Hensley.
“The city and the police department can sometimes be slow at responding to data requests, but we hope this time they’ll take it seriously and want to show the progress that they’re making to keep our people safe,” said Orrin.
As they wait for those records, they’re continuing to work on looking at the options for holding the city accountable.
