Civilian police review board seeks more funding, investigative powers

A group designed to oversee complaints made against the Memphis Police Department on Tuesday morning asked the Memphis City Council for more funding, more staff, and investigative power in a bid to give the board stronger oversight.

James Kirkwood — who spent 30 years in law enforcement and is the chairman of Memphis’ Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board, also known as CLERB — made those requests in the middle of the council’s packed public safety committee agenda. Many of the items were responses to the fallout from the brutal beating, and subsequent death, of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers.

“In 2016, after another situation took place, the board was stood up,” Kirkwood told Memphis City Council. “After many hearings, Councilwoman Wanda Halbert, at that time, argued for strong civilian oversight — a strong CLERB with some teeth. We were given CLERB again, with no teeth. When you look today, our civilian law enforcement review board is completely inadequate.”

Kirkwood’s most important demand is to Nastaff to CLERB. Currently, there are three staffers. He said Tuesday that 10 staffers would be ideal. That staff would be composed of an administrator, three investigators, a policy specialist, two auditors or monitors, a community liaison, an administrative assistant, a media specialist, and an attorney dedicated strictly to CLERB.

By comparison, Memphis has fewer CLERB employees than do such units in Nashville, Detroit and Atlanta, cities with with similar sized police forces. Nashville’s unit has 14 staffers, while Detroit has 33 and Atlanta has 10.

“Before CLERB can do anything, you’ve got to have staff — the people who can get this work done,” Kirkwood told The Commercial Appeal after speaking to the council. “You could give us the authority [to investigate], but if there’s no staff, then you don’t have the ability to do those investigations.”

A constant point of emphasis in Memphis’ CLERB’S efficacy has been its lack of authority to investigate, audit and monitor local law enforcement. Currently, it can only review and provide recommendations to law enforcement. Oftentimes that recommendation comes after an internal investigation has been completed.

In front of the Memphis City Council

Tuesday, Kirkwood asked, once more, for the authority to conduct thorough and independent investigations.

“We’ve always had bad police officers,” he said. “But the examinations and investigations have to be done in a way that the public feels there is justice. Long gone are the days of having and police investigate police. We have to move progressively to...shed light on misconduct.”

In those comparable police forces, their CLERBS have the ability to review independently, audit, and monitor the police forces. Kirkwood pointed to the numbers of complaints reviewed or investigated in 2022 in his pitch to further fund and authorize Memphis’ CLERB.

Nashville investigated or reviewed 102 complaints in 2022. Detroit investigated or reviewed 1,313. Atlanta investigated at least 129. Memphis reviewed five.

Between 2019 and 2021, CLERB heard 11 of the 157 complaints it received. In that same time frame, MPD’S internal affairs investigated 1,867 cases of police misconduct, Kirkwood said, mentioning the importance of having transparent and independent investigations.

But, Kirkwood said, none of this can be done without properly funding CLERB in Memphis. He said he is not sure about the size of the board’s current budget, but said he has heard the number ranges from $200,000 to $400,000 a year.

He is asking for $1.5 million — the same amount, he says, Nashville’s CLERB receives annually.

“Nashville has an annual budget of $1.5 million,” Kirkwood told the city council. “We need $1.5 million just to start.”

Kirkwood said the city had created a “toothless titan” with CLERB, but requested that the council “give it teeth” to honor Nichols, and to ensure investigations are open and accessible for the public.

“If you slap someone on the wrist for something they’ve done wrong, then covered it up and left it alone, they’re going to do it again,” Kirkwood said. “You cannot ignore that this continues to happen. We have to own the abuse we saw Mr. Nichols go through again. For that to have happened, again, something wasn’t done, so adding another layer of transparency will help our calls for justice.

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @Lucasfinton.