11 recent articles by Marc Perrusquia:

• April 2019

  • Perrusquia: Conspiracy theory about MLK's Memphis march skirts essential facts

    As the story goes, FBI agents hired provocateurs to smash store windows and start a riot designed to embarrass King. A recent account includes civil rights photographer Ernest Withers in the plot, but there's no credible proof for the theories. 

    By Marc Perrusquia April 04, 2019

• February 2019

  • POWER BROKER

    As Franklin Haney tells it, his trouble started when President Donald Trump passed him a business tip. It came on an otherwise delightful night last spring as they dined at adjacent tables in Florida’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort.

    By Marc Perrusquia February 19, 2019

• January 2019

  • Perrusquia: In an age of angst over police overreach, the recently filed surveillance lawsuit has broad implications

    Ernest Withers aimed his camera through a bramble of twisting oak limbs, sharpening his focus on a home atop a small hill.

    By Marc Perrusquia January 15, 2019

• December 2018

  • Searching for funding, MPD still not recording interrogations of murder suspects

    As the Memphis Police Department struggles to catch up with a nationwide movement to reform interrogations, its failure to record lets an accused murderer go free.

    By Marc Perrusquia December 21, 2018

• October 2018

  • Police reports of camera infractions raise questions

    Officer Louie Tukes recalls firing four shots that night as a fleeing suspect wheeled around and pointed a handgun at him.

    By Marc Perrusquia and Yolanda Jones October 27, 2018

  • MPD releases names of 51 officers violating body camera policy, withholds details

    The Memphis Police Department has released the names of 51 officers accused of violating the department’s body camera policy but is withholding specific details about the infractions.

    By Marc Perrusquia October 25, 2018

  • Banks shooting pulls MPD into national fray over reliability, proper use of bodycams

    One by one, police dashboard cameras malfunctioned that chilly night in Chicago.

    By Marc Perrusquia October 08, 2018

• September 2018

  • A RELUCTANCE TO RECORD

    For two hours, Terrell Johnson held his own, denying any role in an infamous crime that shook Memphis in 2013.  But finally, the lanky high-schooler buckled under the pressure. He confessed. Johnson, just 17, told a pair of seasoned homicide detectives he drove the getaway car on that awful October day, racing through Parkway Village with two accomplices who’d just robbed and killed a home-repair contractor, a married father of two young children.

    By Marc Perrusquia September 17, 2018

  • Recording interrogations is ‘something that should happen’

    Much of the South remains solid in its resistance to recording custodial police interrogations.

    By Marc Perrusquia September 16, 2018

  • Memphis Police Department’s response on interrogations

    In response to weeks of questioning by Marc Perrusquia, director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting, about the Memphis Police Department’s long reluctance to record custodial interrogations, MPD spokeswoman Karen Rudolph released the following statements via email. The final statement repeated the Institute’s questions and provided answers.

    By Marc Perrusquia September 16, 2018

  • Defense attorney questions memory, notes vs. recorded interrogation

    During the murder trial last year of defendant Brandon Taylor, defense attorney Gregory Carman and Memphis Police Department homicide detective Fausto Frias engaged in a testy exchange.

    By Marc Perrusquia September 16, 2018