Suit seeks to open city’ crime commission records
A lawsuit filed by journalists Wednesday aims to open up records held by the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, the nonprofit organization that coordinates crime prevention policy in Memphis.
The suit was filed by Memphis journalist Wendi C. Thomas and The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization based in New York that focuses on national issues in the U.S. criminal justice system.
The suit filed in Shelby County Chancery Court says the crime commission has refused to release records on matters of public interest, including details of $6.1 million in private donations from businesses to the Memphis Police Department for retention bonuses.
The journalists’ lawsuit argues the commission does public business, including coordinating crime strategies for the entire area, and therefore its records should be public.
“The (crime commission) is the functional equivalent of a government agency,” the lawsuit argues. “Its records are, therefore, public records subject to the requirements of the (Tennessee Public Records Act.)”
The crime commission released a statement Thursday from Ben Adams, chairman of its board of directors.
“The Crime Commission is a nonprofit corporation funded privately and with no governmental authority,” he wrote. “It is not subject to the public records act.”
The crime commission is led by former Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons.
The lawsuit also points to Gibbons’ role as a full-time employee of the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute as further evidence that the crime commission is a public body. And the suit notes the presence of numerous public officials on the board, including the mayors of Memphis and Shelby County.
‘It ought to have to disclose like a duck’
Bill Keller, editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, said the sequence of events leading to the lawsuit began when the organization started researching the issue of police shortages nationwide.
“Memphis seemed to be an example to look at because it’s been a hot public issue there, the connection between recruiting of police and the crime rate,” said Keller, a former executive editor of The New York Times.
“And in the course of our reporting we ran across this unusual situation of an ostensibly non-official commission that advises official Memphis on matters of crime and punishment, and that also serves as a conduit for private money to police.”
“It’s an unusual situation and it seemed to us that the commission’s records should be public information, given that about half of its board members are public officials or public employees of some kind.”
“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it ought to have to disclose like a duck,” Keller said.
Thomas formerly worked as an editor and columnist for The Commercial Appeal and more recently has been leading the nonprofit reporting project MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.
“As a longtime journalist in Memphis, I understand the importance of open records to accountability journalism,” Thomas said in a statement posted on the MLK50 website. “I am glad to help The Marshall Project pursue this story by filing public records requests and assisting with the reporting.”
The Commercial Appeal is working with The Marshall Project on a project related to crime policy in Memphis. The Commercial Appeal is not a party to the lawsuit, though attorney Lucian Pera, who represents The Commercial Appeal in other matters, is representing the journalists who filed.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is also supporting the lawsuit.
Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.