The recommendation by District Attorney General Amy Weirich that all police findings of excessive force be reviewed by her office for possible criminal charges is an important moment in the city’s ongoing discussion of police reform.

But two critics of the city’s current policing philosophy say more basic changes are needed within the Memphis Police Department itself.

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“It’s amazing to me when you start thinking about our city and how we have evolved as a community, but the policing method has remained the same,” former city council member Harold Collins said on the WKNO Channel 10 program “Behind The Headlines.”

“We’ve had numerous police directors, and they have used the same processes to police in communities, to evaluate crime, to promote their programs,” he said. “And that has not changed. As we have evolved, policing has not.”

Collins worked in the criminal justice system prior to his two terms on the council and is currently director of the Shelby County Office of Reentry, working with those just released from prison.

Josh Spickler, director of the criminal justice reform group Just City, says reporting by the University of Memphis Institute for Public Service Reporting and The Daily Memphian has played a role in changing part of what he sees as a larger problem.

“In this community, I think there is probably not a lot of disagreement that that relationship is broken – that there is not a lot of trust between the Memphis Police Department and the community that they are policing,” he said on the same program. “They lack transparency. They lack accountability. Fortunately, this year has been one free of major issues – free of major police-involved shootings (in Memphis).”

More troubling, though, has been the incidents from recent years uncovered in the Institute’s attempt to examine 130 incidents over a five-year period ending in 2019 that involved internal MPD investigations of the use of force by officers.

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The city and MPD have not released all the internal files requested by the Institute and The Daily Memphian. And they have placed limits on access and the ability to copy records. But a more limited review shows investigators sustained excessive force allegations made in 26 of the 130 cases, or 20%.

Outside of those cases, paperwork on the retirement of MPD homicide detective Eric Kelly for an improper sexual relationship with a suspect in a murder case on which he was lead detective was not in his public personnel file the first two times the Institute looked at it. The third time, the paperwork confirming he had retired months earlier, after investigators concluded he had acted improperly, was in the file.

Kelly was indicted last month on three felony counts of official misconduct related to the case.

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Weirich says she has talked with police Director Michael Rallings about a policy of referring every case where a police internal review makes a finding that confirms excessive force to the prosecutor’s office, instead of referring every complaint whether it is confirmed or denied by the police internal investigation.

Rallings has refused to comment but his office has said there are discussions about creating a policy where none currently exists.

“It’s taken journalists years to uncover that,” Spickler said of the incidents found and reported on by the Institute and The Daily Memphian.

“Any sort of attempt to hold them accountable, any sort of attempt to bring transparency to that department, is met with stiff resistance,” he said. “We have to solve that trust problem before we can talk about how to use police officers in our community to address our crime issue.”

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Meanwhile, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s “reimagining police” advisory group continues to meet to explore broader changes. That follows a first phase in which Strickland and Rallings emphasized changes police were already in the process of making or policy changes on the use of force that were already in place.

Strickland still believes that a major component is increasing the size of the Memphis Police Department from its current ranks of approximately 2,100 to 2,800 – a goal that was increased suddenly earlier this year by criminal justice consultants hired by the MPD. The previous goal had been a force of 2,300 to 2,400.

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Shortly after the step up to a goal of 2,800 by Rallings and the administration, a majority on the Memphis City Council voted to remove a ballot question from the Nov. 3 ballot asking Memphis voters to allow police officers and firefighters to live outside Shelby County.

The referendum was considered a key component of the administration’s goal of recruiting to increase police ranks.

Some council members who voted to pull the question from the ballot have said they aren’t ruling out a larger police force, just a police force that includes more police officers who don’t live where they work.

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Collins says the move for more police officers is familiar from his time on the council that ended in 2015 as he ran for mayor in a four-way race with incumbent A C Wharton, fellow council member Jim Strickland and Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams.

“Every time there is an issue, the answer is more police. That is the default,” Collins said. “I think again, because our community has begun to evolve, policing has not. Their whole thing is whatever the problem is, the answer is more police. It’s not looking at what the real issues are.”

Rallings has also touted the department’s specialized Crisis Intervention Team of some police officers as being “ahead of the curve” in responding to police calls involving those with mental issues.

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Outside of the city’s process, however, some critics of police policy are discussing whether police should handle those kinds of calls at all or whether mental health professionals should respond with police taking a secondary role in the encounters.

“Many times officers who show up at scenes are not trained in that particular process,” Collins said of CIT training. “Then you have to call other officers from other areas to utilize that skill they have been trained in.”

Spickler says there are also more basic problems with the way some officers respond to one community from another that impacts what he says is a majority of officers who are doing their jobs the right way.

“I don’t think it’s wise for us to discount that the entire police department represents something to a vast swath of our community. I think there’s evidence to back that up,” he said. “I don’t believe the entire police department is full of people who are preying on others. But I do think there is a culture of cover-up, a culture of protecting one another and a less safe city.”

“Behind the Headlines” is hosted by Eric Barnes of The Daily Memphian. It airs on WKNO Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 8:30 a.m. It can also be seen on the Behind the Headlines Podcast.

Listen to the podcast or watch this week’s episode at the top of the page.

Produced by Natalie Van Gundy

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