In the past few weeks, it’s become painfully clear that our current model of policing, especially how police interact with the black community, threatens to tear apart our communal bonds. 

The cumulating evidence points to systemic disregard for the humanity of black people. Our collective failure to muster the political will to alter this system has resulted in palpable despair and alienation. It’s time for a radical rethinking of the current police structure. 

We offer three suggestions for concrete steps to reduce the disconnect between our police and our community.

Civilian review

We must retool the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) in a way that gives it real power to investigate and deal with those officers who show themselves to be unfit for service. 

Currently, CLERB has no subpoena power. When it investigates complaints of police misconduct, the Memphis Police Department often ignores their requests for documents and police witness testimony, along with their recommended resolution. CLERB has to get a City Council act to pass to get any information from the MPD if MPD resists.

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That burden should be reversed: There should be a strong presumption that CLERB requests are honored and recommendations followed, unless the MPD can overcome that presumption and get the council to affirmatively overrule CLERB. 

On this topic, as in so many others, the culture perpetuated by Memphis Police Association and the MPD’s leadership that puts accountability behind brotherhood has to change. Our officers’ fidelity must be to the community and to the mission of the organization before it is to each other. 

Demilitarize the MPD

Over the past two decades, your local police have grown steadily more militarized. The local police force too often more closely resembles the forces that rolled through the streets of Baghdad than those charged to serve and protect our citizens. In the last 15 years, the state of Tennessee has spent more than $120 million purchasing used military gear and weaponry from the Pentagon. 

Our own MPD purchased a $658,000 mine-resistant vehicle. There’s no doubt that our potholes are a problem, but surely the mayor’s “brilliant at the basics” efforts have rendered such a vehicle unnecessary. 

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Former Shelby County Commission member Mike Ritz used to refer dismissively to these purchases as “toys” for local law enforcement, a name which correctly illustrates that they aren’t really needed. But worse, such weaponry results in a mentality that separates our police from us, leaving the citizenry fearful and our police with a mindset that they’re heading off to war instead of serving the community as equals. Notably, President Obama had limited many of the sales of such equipment, but the Trump administration promptly reversed that policy after a few months in office. 

The mayor and City Council should appoint a Community Commission, with representatives from the MPD, activists and community leaders, to provide a list of all equipment maintained by the MPD and to develop a plan to reduce the military footprint of our police forces. The MPD should sharply reduce its requests for such equipment, and the City Council should ordinarily disapprove them, even when they are paid for by federal funds. 

Revamp training

In Memphis and in other communities, even the most reform-minded individuals have been unable to change the culture that generations of police have ingrained within their departments. Thus, change must come from the bottom up. That’s why the demand of those leading the peaceful protests in our streets for an increased focus on de-escalation at the MPD training academy is so important. 

The typical police officer receives seven times more training on how to shoot than on how to de-escalate tense situations. We should focus on training each officer who joins our force in a style of policing that constantly seeks to de-escalate confrontations and to build bridges between the police and the community they serve. We must change the mentality of the officers we train. 

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In depositions in a case dealing with the MPD, one of the authors asked several officers and officials within the department whether it was “safe to say that cops liked guns.” More than one chuckled in response and said something to the effect of, “You could say that.” 

That tough guy, gun-slinging mindset must change.

These changes must come quickly to Memphis. It wasn’t a Memphis officer whose knee snuffed the life from George Floyd. But if/when the day comes when an incident like that does occur within our city and we haven’t yet taken action, we will have only ourselves to blame for the aftermath that ensues. 

Steve Mulroy is a former federal prosecutor who teaches criminal law and procedure at the University of Memphis. He served on the Shelby County Commission from 2006-2014. Bryce Ashby is an attorney with Donati Law, PLLC and Board member of Latino Memphis.