Memphis City Council members could take final votes Tuesday, March 7, on a set of six police reform measures including barring police from making traffic stops for minor vehicle violations and doing away with the use of unmarked police cars in traffic stops.

The ordinances are a reaction to the death of Tyre Nichols three days after he was beaten by Memphis Police officers two months ago Tuesday.

Council members will review the ordinances earlier in the day at a 9 a.m. committee session with a leader of the Vera Institute of Justice.

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The Vera Institute in a national group working to end “mass incarceration” as well as cash bail systems.

Depending on the discussion Tuesday morning, the ordinances could be amended and final votes possibly delayed on some.

Council committee meetings begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The council is expecting a lot of citizen reaction on different sides of the issue.

Leaders of the social justice group MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope) rallied supporters of the ordinances last week in front of City Hall.

“This is about systemic change and they are banking on us to go to sleep and forget,” MICAH president Rev. Rosalyn Nichols told the group of 100 gathered at the start of a rainy Friday evening.

“We want to reimagine how we see guns and how we see policing in the community,” she said. “Relying on violence and force has never helped anybody before.”

Some activists in the group also said the ordinances should be amended to forbid police officers from working “plainclothes,” or not wearing their uniforms while working.

University of Memphis student Richard Massey said the issue is about more than Nichols death.

“What we are fighting for is true fundamental police reform at every level,” he said. “We’re talking about political accountability as well.”

Here is the full slate of six proposals:

• Require an annual independent review of police training and the police training academy. The chief of police and the mayor would select the “independent third party.” The council would approve the funding. The recommendations, as well as the review’s report, would be submitted to the council.
• Amend the city traffic code of ordinances to bar police from using certain low-level traffic violations — including a single broken taillight, a license plate not displayed properly, lack of a bumper and car registration that has been expired for less than two months — for traffic stops.
• Bar traffic stops by police in unmarked police cars.
• Beef up the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board by requiring reports on police complaints and access to police officers and other witnesses.
• Allow the council to get police reports and police body camera video of incidents under review by police internal investigators and relay that information to CLERB. The city administration would be required to respond to the council request within five days. The measure is a companion item to the other ordinance enhancing the powers of CLERB.
• Establish a public safety data transparency ordinance that specifically creates a public database of traffic stops, use-of-force incidents and complaints of police misconduct.

The ordinances don’t address calls for other kinds of reform like bail reform and eliminating specialized police units.

The five MPD officers charged with second degree murder in the death of Nichols were all part of the SCORPION unit, formed to combat street crime.

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The unit was disbanded with the other officers assigned to the unit dispersed to the Organized Crime Unit and other specialized units still in place.

Council members have said there are some changes they can only suggest by resolution and not order the police department to undertake.

Those pushing for reform have been present and vocal during the council votes on the first two readings of the ordinances.

But there are others who say the calls for reform should be more balanced.

Former Memphis Police director Buddy Chapman said it would be a “terrible idea” to eliminate all specialized police units. He said the problem with the SCORPION unit was police brass picked the wrong officers for the unit and not providing enough supervision. He also said the unit’s “zero tolerance” approach was wrong.

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“The problem is the zero tolerance approach to crime. It’s very difficult to do that and not be zero tolerance towards everybody as a whole,” he said on the WKNO program “Behind The Headlines.”

“The next step up from zero tolerance enforcement is martial law,” Chapman said. “Well, none of us want martial law. If you had martial law, you wouldn’t have any crime.”

Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission president Bill Gibbons said the newly launched Shelby County Bail Court shouldn’t be considering the income of those arrested or whether the county jail is overcrowded in making bail decisions.

Neither is among the factors for setting bail in state law.

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“They need to stick to what state law provides,” he said on BTH.

He also said juveniles detained for property crimes should be in detention for some amount of time.

“Essentially unless there’s a gun involved, they’re going to be issued a summons – a piece of paper to appear in court,” said Gibbons, a former District Attorney General. “I don’t think that that is adequate in terms of holding them accountable.”

In other action, the council votes Tuesday on a second reading of a zoning reclassification in the airport area.

Memphis Airways Investors LLC, working with the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority, wants to reclassify what had been a residential subdivision for possible future use as a warehouse.

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The larger area is a mix or warehouses and similar logistics businesses with residential neighborhoods.

The area at the northwest corner of Kilarney Avenue and Airways Boulevard is in the airport “buy out” area, an area of homes bought out because of the noise created by the airport.

But homeowners in the residential subdivisions that remain just beyond the boundaries of the buyout area are opposed to the rezoning, saying they would like to see new residential development in the area.

An attorney for the LLC seeking the reclassification say that is impossible under terms of the buyout settlement with the previous homeowners.

The Land Use Control Board and the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development have each recommended the council reject the rezoning.

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Last month, council members debated whether to take a quick vote rejecting it on the first reading of the ordinance, which would kill the rezoning then and there.

Because a public hearing is required, the council opted instead to approve it on first reading and set the public hearing for Tuesday’s second reading with a council vote at the end of the hearing.