Memphis wants public-private anti-crime partnership like Atlanta

Memphis City Councilmembers, Mayor Paul Young and representatives from the Greater Memphis Chamber on Tuesday said they would be introducing a resolution to form a Public Safety Commission, inspired by one in Atlanta.

Council Chair JB Smiley, Jr. said that it is the City Council’s duty to take a front seat in crime prevention.

“We’ve heard folks in the community talking about the need to carve out crime in our community and we believe that the body that this will create will do just that,” Smiley said.

The proposed independent body would work to address crime in the city and Atlanta has seen a reduction in crime since the organizations inseption. Smiley said the body in Memphis would look similar.

“There’s no point of re-creating a new thing when there’s something that already exists,” Smiley said.

Last week, Smiley and other local elected officials met with officials from the Atlanta Police Foundation to discuss their organization, but it was not the first time elected officials from Memphis interacted with the organization.

Young and Councilwoman Janika White have visited Atlanta to see the organization at work.

The Atlanta Police Foundation is not subject to public records requests, and Councilman Chase Carlisle said it is too soon to tell what transparency practices the body in Memphis would be subject to.

“It’s premature, I think, in the beginning of the process,” he said. “You’re gonna see open debate as required by the public meetings law.”

Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, said that private-public partnerships are the model to have the “most effect and impact.”

“There’s nothing more important to the business community than say, Memphis and our region, and we’re eager to support this,” Townsend said.