The five officers terminated in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols were affiliated with a special MPD police unit called SCORPION, an initiative that attempts to make data-driven decisions to identify crime hotspots and suppress them with saturation patrols.

Documents reviewed by The Institute for Public Service Reporting and The Daily Memphian confirmed that all five officers were a part of the SCORPION unit.

Launched in 2021 by MPD Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis as part of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s efforts to reduce crime, the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods, or SCORPION, unit identifies upticks in motor vehicle thefts and violent crime and then targets those areas with patrolling SCORPION officers.

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Discussing SCORPION in a January 2022 address, Strickland said the unit of “four, 10-man teams” had made 566 arrests in its first three months alone, seizing more than “$103,000 in cash, 270 vehicles and 253 weapons.”

The mayor said then that the unit targets homicides, aggravated assaults, robberies and carjackings.

The SCORPION effort is in some ways similar to other approaches to proactive policing that MPD has pursued over many years, including pioneering data-driven policing programs such as Blue CRUSH.

“The MPD ... uses data to deploy officers to high-crime areas with a direct focus on reducing violent crime, being visible, and uplifting the community,” MPD public information officer Christopher Williams said in a written statement Wednesday, Jan. 11.

Criminal justice policy experts have mixed assessments of some of the types of tactics used by SCORPION. Both critics and proponents say such efforts must be carefully and properly supervised. Critics say the tactics can lead to discrimination and abuse and can erode community trust.

Questions about SCORPION’s role in Nichols incident

It’s unclear if the Sat., Jan. 7, traffic stop of Nichols involved a formal SCORPION action, but during a press conference with Nichols’ family and their lawyers, attorney Antonio Romanucci questioned why “an organized unit” of MPD would stop Nichols. 

The officers fired after Nichols’ death are Demetrius Haley and Tadarrius Bean, both hired in August 2020; Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith, both hired in March 2018; and Desmond Mills Jr., hired in March 2017.

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According to arrest reports unrelated to the Nichols incident, the five fired officers were on assignment in the vicinity of Parkway Village — the area where Nichols was pulled over — the day before the Nichols incident.

Differing assessments of policing strategies

The nonprofit public policy think tank, the RAND Corporation, warns against broad-net measures such as stopping, questioning and possibly frisking pedestrians and motorists whom police consider suspicious and then arresting them for low-level offenses.

“A defining difference between zero tolerance interventions and other strategies is that zero tolerance strategies are not discerning; the focus is on making stops and arrests to crack down on all types of disorder, generically defined,’’ RAND says on its Better Policing Toolkit web page. ”... Being proactive in preventing crime does not (and should not) simply mean zero tolerance and aggressive policing.”

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RAND instead favors strategies such as “focused deterrence” including intervening with high-risk groups and individuals such as known gang members with histories of violence. 

Former Memphis Police Director Winslow “Buddy” Chapman — who is now executive director of CrimeStoppers of Memphis and Shelby County — said such proactive initiatives can provide a public service, but they must be tightly supervised and monitored because abuse often follows.

“I think that one of the reasons minorities, impoverished people, people on the fringes of society, are frequently the victims of excessive use of force by police is that because, let’s face it, it’s easier to get away with,” said Chapman, who served as police director from 1976 to 1983.

Chapman called it “very disturbing” that a traffic offense would wind up with someone dead and said he agreed with every officer being terminated in the Nichols case, regardless of their role.

Chapman said the police department’s role in the community should be to protect and serve and to apprehend people without punishing them. 

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“That has got to be a give and take of trust,” said Chapman, who worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to reform practices at MPD following excessive and deadly force cases such as the 1971 killing of Elton Hayes, a teenager beaten to death following a high-speed chase. 

“It’s got to be a relationship where the community does not fear the police, but rather welcomes their efforts to make the community a safer place,’’ he said.

For reform advocate Josh Spickler, zero-tolerance tactics make saturation patrols seem more like an occupying force than the work of a police department that aims to protect and serve.

“There’s clearly a mistrust between the people being policed and the police because of incidents like this,” said Spickler, executive director of the nonprofit criminal justice reform organization, Just City.

“Police officers represent a force in neighborhoods in this community,” he said. “We’ve gone too far. We need to back up and figure out how to make police officers, who have a very difficult job, a part of the neighborhood. A part of the community.”

Two MFD personnel relieved of duty after Tyre Nichols incident

The Nichols incident

The five officers were initially suspended, and later fired, following the encounter with Nichols during a traffic stop near Ross and Raines roads in Memphis’ Hickory Hill area. Authorities have provided few details. MPD said Nichols was stopped for reckless driving before fleeing on foot following an encounter with officers. A second confrontation reportedly occurred when officers attempted to arrest Nichols.

Nichols’ family and their lawyers viewed the video of the officers’ fatal interaction with Nichols on Monday, January 23. “What we can tell you about this video is it is appalling,” said Ben Crump, one of the attorneys representing Nichols’ family. “It is deplorable. It is heinous. It is violent. It is troublesome on every level.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI have launched investigations. The Shelby County District Attorney’s office said it could be a week or two before will release video of the incident, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

Authorities have not spelled out specific roles that each of the five fired officers allegedly played in Nichols’ death. Following the officers’ firing, MPD cited a variety of infractions in a release last week, including excessive use of force, failure to intervene and failure to render aid.