Strickland: MPD funding should not be cut
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says the Memphis Police Department’s funding should not be cut as part of a national call to defund police departments. (Daily Memphian file)
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says the Memphis Police Department’s funding should not be cut as part of a national call to defund police departments.
“With our city’s fight against violent crime, I believe cutting funding from the Memphis Police Department is unwise,” Strickland said in a statement released Wednesday, June 10. “And frankly it’s out of touch with the majority of city residents.”
Strickland cited what he heard in running for a second term as mayor in 2019 and the passage of a half cent sales tax hike by voters to fund benefits to police and firefighters the city cut in 2014.
The Memphis City Council is considering four proposals in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody and calls for law enforcement reform nationally since Floyd’s death.
Those proposals include making public complaints of police misconduct, adoption of the “8 Can’t Wait” reforms around the use of force by police, a ban on chokeholds by police and a community task force to have a role in the selection of a new police director as Michael Rallings retires from the post in 10 months.
The Shelby County Commission earlier this week considered two proposals by Commissioner Tami Sawyer to cut funding for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and divert the funding cut to other uses. Both proposals were voted down by the commission.
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Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland Memphis Police Department George FloydBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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