MPD hopes residents can help improve relations

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After working in the Memphis Police Department for 25 years, Lt. Mike Embrey says it’s time the department made more of an effort to improve its relationship with the community.

He and fellow officers met with nearly 30 residents at Union Grove Baptist Church in Frayser Saturday for the Community Police Relations Forum to discuss the good, bad and ugly parts of police presence.

“Our ultimate goal is to come up with an action plan to identify policies and/or procedures that can be changed to improve community police relations,” Embrey said.

Saturday’s forum was the first of a series that police will host across the city. Community members participated in breakout groups and shared how police have affected them while an improvisational theater group, Playback Memphis, acted out what they said. Union Grove also will host a forum at noon July 13.

Tension was high when a woman told the crowd how police didn’t allow her to lock her home while she was being arrested. She asked police to cuff her hands in front of her body because holding her hands behind her back hurt, but they refused.

She said she wasn’t comfortable in the room with officers and immediately left.

“There’s no judgment about the feelings that woman displayed,” Embrey said. “A lot of people don’t understand that we are bound by policies on how to arrest people and transport them ... It’s a liability and safety issue for the officer and the city.”

Even though policies exist, Embrey said, officers should “be compassionate to those they police.”

Sonny Robinson of Hickory Hill said the need for attitude improvement shouldn’t fall solely on police.

“People have to realize, that is a human being in a uniform who is at work,” Robinson said to the group. “If somebody hits me, they hit me, not everyone else. You can’t blame the whole police department for what one officer did to you.”

Karen Spencer-Mcgee of South Memphis said the police don’t get enough credit for their hard work.

“There are about 98 percent of officers who are good and about 2 percent who want to act a fool, take people down to the casino or make people perform sexual acts,” she said. “The media sensationalizes what the 2 percent does to entertain people to get ratings.”

Embrey said the department appreciated all the honesty Saturday because the project depends on it.

“It’s part of the healing process,” he said. “Sometime it hurts, but to heal you have to hear (the truth).”