SHOULD OFFICERS LIVE WHERE THEY POLICE?
Memphis force faces dual challenges of recruitment, representing the community
There may be changes coming for Memphis police if residents vote to allow officers to live outside Shelby County. The city joins several police departments across the county debating the value, and pitfalls, of residency requirements placed on police.
The city council voted in December to add the question to the November election ballot after Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings argued the change will help increase officer count.
Police recruitment and retention is a focus for Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration. The city officials formulate more officers means less crime and removing residency requirements could help recruitment efforts.
When Strickland took office for his first term in 2016, the department had 2,064 officers, compared with 2,090 in January. The city’s goal is to reach 2,300 by December.
Some experts say the department’s staffing impasse is important and should be resolved. Some officers have legitimate fear about living where they police and possibly encountering a suspect off-duty.
Experts also note residents fear that officers
who don’t live where they police might lack compassion and understanding.
‘MPD is in a staffing crisis’
In a December 2019 letter to the city council — obtained through an open records request by The Commercial Appeal — Rallings said his department doesn’t have the required number of officers to meet its mission.
He referenced a 2014 Strategic City Solutions report that recommended 2,400 were needed to reduce crime.
“Reducing violent crime should be our No. 1 priority, not residency,” he said in the letter.
He said there are several reasons an officer would want to live in another jurisdiction, including “choice of schools, choice of community, choice of childcare facility, a more rural lifestyle with more acreage available, a home closer to the employment location of a spouse, or a responsibility of caring for an elderly family member.” Rallings went on to state that “employees should be able to reside outside of Shelby County, TN, as long as they can report to work within two hours of notice.” In conclusion, Rallings stated “when an officer responds to a call for help, or a firefighter runs into a burning building, or when a 911 dispatcher picks up the line, no one will ask where that first responder lives.”
“Our citizens want and deserve the best services possible.”
‘More familiarity with the officer and more trust’
Jameca Falconer, a counseling psychologist based in St. Louis, said it’s ideal for police officers to live in the community they police. Though, at the same time, she understands that’s not always possible when departments are in need of more staff.
Falconer provided crisis services to the Ferguson, Missouri, community in the days after the Aug. 9, 2014, fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr., by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.
She described the case as a socially dynamic situation, where Wilson neither lived in Ferguson nor shared the same ethnic makeup as Brown and many in his community. Falconer said Wilson likely carried negative values with him.
“He came to work every day to police a community that he was not familiar with and probably didn’t respect,” she said. “It’s even more difficult to police a community that you don’t respect and you feel like is subpar, animalistic, living off the system, poor, lazy.”
When officers racially reflect the communities they serve, residents may assume they have common experiences and “automatically give them a certain amount of trust,” Falconer said. This concept is based on the theory of social identity, she said.
Falconer shared the psychological effects of when officers police where they live.
“I think the effects of when they do police their own communities is that they tend to be more knowledgeable of resources, systems and the individuals in the community themselves,” she said.
“In other words, instead of just identifying a person as the owner of the dollar store on Main Street, then that person becomes Mr. White — ‘That was my mama’s first grade teacher’ — which then means that they tend to be more familiar and feel more comfortable with those people.”
Falconer said when officers don’t live in the community, residents tend to have an “us versus them mentality.” When officers do live in the area, the mindset is different.
“If they know that the officer is from their own community, they tend to see that individual or that officer as one of them,” she said. “So, there tends to be more comfort with that officer, more familiarity with the officer and more trust, because you see them as a person that’s already part of your group.”
‘Policing is very visible’
KB Turner, University of Memphis Criminology & Criminal Justice Department chair, echoed similar sentiments as Falconer.
“Anecdotally, when a person lives in a community that they serve, there tends to be somewhat more of a community buy-in of that community,” Turner said.
Turner said some residents feel that when officers don’t reside in the area, the officers “may not have the community’s interest at heart, but rather concerned more about it being a job,” and these concerns should not be overlooked.
He also noted that it’s important to consider the reality of being an officer.
“There’s some officers who do not want to live within the jurisdiction because they want to have some sense of tranquility when they’re — quote, unquote — off duty,” he said.
Turner served as a police officer for nine years in Omaha, Nebraska, about 30 years ago. He remembers rules were an issue for its department too.
“This was a point of contention for many citizens and some officers as well,” he said.
Officers are now able to live outside Omaha, including as far as Iowa.
He said working where you live can come with expectations.
“Policing is very visible,” Turner said. “Particularly, those who work in uniform patrol. When there are violations of crime or social disorders, for example, even when you’re off duty, the citizens have an expectation that you are to respond to that particular case or that call.”
Turner said some officers also feel a real sense of danger.
“When you’re off duty and you’re out of uniform, for example, being recognized by someone who may, for whatever reason, have a grudge against an officer or a particular officer, they may decide to engage in activity that is harmful to that officer.”
Turner said it’s important that Memphis fills the police ranks, but whether an officer lives in or outside Memphis, it’s up to the department to instill the importance of values of various communities through training.
Residency in Pittsburgh
Tim Stevens, chairman and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project in Pittsburgh, said his organization has always advocated for in-community policing.
His organization was vocal on the issue before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that Pittsburgh police officers could live outside city limits in 2017. The decision allows officers to live within 25 miles of the downtown City-county Building, where many government offices are housed.
He and other members communicated their position to the city council and media that when officers live where they work, there is a better chance for connection. “It hopefully gives a direct connection between the officers and the city that they serve,” Stevens said. “So, they’re not looking at their job as merely a job in which they are paid, which allows them to have food, housing — whatever goes with that — but that they have some literal connection to the city in terms of living in the city.”
Stevens said hopefully officers who reside in the city will have a commitment to how the city operates.
“That they have a commitment to creating positive community-police relations,” he said.
“That they have a vested interest in making those neighborhoods more positive. That they have a vested interest in going out of their way to be a contributor to positive community relations because they are literally a part of the city.”
Stevens believes he’s seen fewer African American officers in the past few years. He said he plans to meet with Pittsburgh Police Department officials to address the issue. “We feel the issue of having African Americans or people of color on the police force is a very sensitive issue,” Stevens said.
“It’s not like you’re buying a suit or a shirt from Macy’s. We want an integrative force at Macy’s, as well. But when you’re dealing with people who have guns, mace, batons, handcuffs and the authority to shoot you, arrest you or possibly even kill you, we feel the issue of a racial balance on the police force is extremely important.”
To counter potential racial and cultural imbalance on the force, Stevens would like to propose that officers who are willing to live in the city be prioritized during the recruitment process.
Nearby, in East Pittsburgh, a white officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in 2018.
Though protests occurred in Pittsburgh after the death of Antwon Rose II by Michael Rosfeld, Stevens said the shooting was unrelated to the city.
“The officer who did the shooting — the killing — was an East Pittsburgh officer, which has nothing to do with the city of Pittsburgh, in terms of employment and training,” Stevens said.
Stevens said the city has not seen a major violent police-related incident in a while.
“I can honestly say that the chief, the immediate past chief and the chief before have been diligently working toward community relations and attempting to increase the number of African Americans on the force.”
Here’s what Memphis voters could decide
On Nov. 3, voters could decide if officers employed with the Memphis Divisions of Police and Fire Services can reside in any neighboring county or within 50 miles of city limits.
Officers are currently required to live in Shelby County. The two-hour policy is currently in place for 956 officers who were hired on or before Jan. 3, 2005.
The department’s November 2019 residency report showed 878 officers, or 42% of all commissioned officers, live in Memphis; 996 officers, or 48%, live outside Memphis but in Shelby County; and 208, or 10%, who have lived outside Shelby County since before the current rules were applied.
There are 115 commissioned officers hired in 2009 who are allowed to reside outside Shelby County, but no greater than 20 miles from the county boundary, and must pay an annual $1,400 fee. Only seven among the pool choose to live outside the county.
Of all applicants, 80% come from Memphis and Shelby County and “closely reflect the demographics,” according to the letter.
The department is 55% African American, 42% Caucasian, 2% Hispanic and 1% other.
“We will continue to recruit from Memphis and Shelby County, but recognize that we must expand our recruiting efforts to more jurisdictions to meet the hiring numbers necessary to get MPD to the appropriate staffing level,” Rallings said.
The Memphis City Council is expected to consider pulling the question from the ballot on Feb. 18.