City officials discuss police reforms
Discussions underway since George Floyd killing
Memphis residents now know more about police reform measures being considered by officials following a joint press conference between Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings, and the city’s chief of the human resources department, Alex Smith. On Thursday, the three discussed specific reforms around five areas, including the city’s civilian law enforcement review board, or CLERB. The discussions between officials and a combination of activists and faith leaders have been underway since the police killing of George Floyd and amid the nationwide protests against police brutality that followed. The mayor also promised “some means for broadened discussions” between concerned citizens and elected officials, but did not offer further clarity as to what the official channel for those communications would look like and how it would function. “That exact process has not been decided, but we will lay that out hopefully within the next week or so,” Strickland said. Following Strickland’s opening statements and expressions of gratitude towards clergy, activists, city council and police, Smith expanded upon the five areas where consensus had been reached between officials and community members. 1. Police will be updated to reflect the mission of “8 can’t wait,” a wide range of new rules to limit police use of force. Rallings has previously said that many policies within “8 can’t wait” are already practiced by MPD, including a ban on chokeholds. 2. Some improvements will be made to CLERB. Smith said the city will allocate funding towards the hire of a parttime staffer who will be tasked with administrative and web site support for CLERB. Additionally, $20,000 will be set aside for enhanced marketing and communications. Smith also said the officials had agreed to “review adding subpoena power for CLERB” as part of the city’s state legislative agenda. Past criticisms of CLERB as an entity have included the lack of subpoena power. The lack of subpoena power, reform advocates have previously said, renders CLERB as mostly powerless. City council also floated the idea of replacing the board with a council subcommittee in November 2019, but that idea never reached a vote. 3. The city is now posting board opportunities on their website in the spirit of ensuring fair access for citizens interested in serving on civil service boards, including CLERB. 4. The city will work with the Memphis Police Association, the union representing officers, on areas where “language could be strengthened in memorandums of understanding with them in order to seek how we can hold officer accountable for use of excessive force,” Smith said. 5. Implicit bias training, and cultural awareness and cultural diversity training are already offered at MPD’S officer academy. Now, Smith said, training sessions will be enhanced with participation from community activists as part of reform efforts. Neither Smith, Strickland nor Rallings specified which specific activists would take part in the reconfigured training sessions. In Memphis, the past weeks of police brutality protests have been led by different factions of activists. On Thursday, Strickland thanked two in particular — Devante Hill and Frank Gottie — for leading “peaceful protests” almost nightly in the first two weeks after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Rallings acknowledges ‘strong demand’ for change Like Strickland, Rallings also characterized the last four weeks of talks with community members as enlightening, a process that has strengthened his knowledge of police and community relations. “I understand the frustrations that our citizens are feeling, and I realize the importance of transparency and accountability as we reform law enforcement nationwide,” Rallings said. The director said he believed in “re-imagining law enforcement” and acknowledged the imperfect nature of policing. To that end, Rallings said he was also committed to an ongoing dialogue between law enforcement and the communities they serve as MPD looks for areas of improving and revamping policing in Memphis. Part of that reevaluation process, Rallings indicated, would be studying policing practices put forth by former President Barack Obama’s administration. During his remarks, Rallings suggested MPD has already adapted several of the suggested reform points of the “8 can’t wait,” including a requirement of de-escalation, and required warnings to suspects before officers fire their weapons. Rallings also said MPD would reevaluate their “duty to intervene” policy. The police director is set to retire in April 2021, and who succeeds him, has been a subject of some discussion at different intervals. When asked on Thursday, Strickland said no specific selection process for Rallings’ successor had been ironed out but as with Rallings’ appointment to director, “the community will be involved to some degree.” Also absent from discussion was any mention of reallocating funding from MPD towards education or community services. Also known as “defunding the police,” the concept has picked up momentum locally and nationally in the wake of police brutality protests. Locally, activists in the the Official Black Lives Matter Memphis chapter and the Coalition of Concerned Citizens have called for police funding to be redirected towards education and economically vulnerable communities. Strickland has come in opposition to this concept and said Memphians largely support hiring more police officers, if anything.