Public Safety
Memphis plans to hire former federal judge to monitor MPD
The move would be part of a plan to improve the Memphis Police Department without entering into a binding consent decree with the Department of Justice.
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Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. A native Rhode Islander who lives Downtown, he enjoys tennis, golf and reading.
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The move would be part of a plan to improve the Memphis Police Department without entering into a binding consent decree with the Department of Justice.
The Memphis Area Transit Authority Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday, Dec. 17, to install three consultants at the top of the troubled bus system — at some future point.
Seeding Success leadership has spent months pitching the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission on the antipoverty plan. Related content:
The new Memphis Area Transit Authority board heard a proposal to replace interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin temporarily with John Lewis of Transpro, the consultant who wrote a scathing report about the bus system just weeks ago.
Last week, xAI, the startup founded by Elon Musk, announced plans to expand its supercomputer. Now, environmental groups want to know what it will cost Memphis.
Tech giants Nvidia, Super Micro Computer and Dell are also eyeing Memphis for new manufacturing space.
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Mayor Paul Young and City Chief Legal Officer Tannera Gibson disputed whether MPD treats Black residents differently than white ones.
“It’s my job as mayor to fight for the best interests of our entire community,” Mayor Paul Young said, citing that as a reason for the city not consenting to an agreement with the Justice Department.
On Thursday morning, Dec. 5, the City of Memphis released letters from Mayor Paul Young and interim Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges the Memphis Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution. ‘A rush to judgment’: Memphis won’t enter agreement with DOJRelated content:
The City of Memphis does not plan on entering an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice following the department’s civil rights investigation into the Memphis Police Department, City Attorney Tannera Gibson said in a letter to the DOJ this week.
The funds would have to be allocated at the Shelby County Commission’s meetings on Dec. 11 and Dec. 16, the last two before the end of the year.
“Acknowledging PTSD is a step forward to normalizing this conversation around mental health, reducing stigma and encouraging officers to seek help when they need it,” said Memphis City Council member Jerri Green.
MLGW’s $2.5 billion budget doesn’t include any rate increases for the current year, but a previously passed 4% electric rate increase will take effect next year. Related content:
The Memphis City Council has an eye toward the future of Downtown and MLGW’s place in it.
A planned surge of public-safety resources into Downtown Memphis comes after years of public perception souring on safety in the central business district.
The City of Memphis plans to invest additional resources Downtown — including almost 200 more cameras — to make the area safer.
The City of Memphis is eyeing a single-item tax on food and other items sold Downtown to fund the district’s security, beautification and assistance for the area’s unhoused population.
The new sentence includes no prison time. Robinson received a sentence of time served in 2022. Instead, U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman imposed a fine of $48,600.
Attorneys for RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’ mother, said that the city “misused” the court docket and is attempting “to poison the jury pool” in a case set for trial next year.
The claims add a new twist to the $550 million civil rights lawsuit that Tyre Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, and his estate have filed against the City of Memphis following Nichols’ 2023 beating and death at the hands of five now-former Memphis Police Department officers.
It is unclear whether MPD Interim Chief C.J. Davis has the council votes to become the full-time chief again, but she appears to have gained at least one vote since January.
Two groups want to stop the city from enforcing the nonbinding gun-control measures voters approved during a referendum last week.