Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis is bracing for the possibility of national outrage after the Friday, Jan. 27, video release of the attempted arrest of Tyre Nichols.

Three days after the Jan. 7 attempted arrest, Nichols died from injuries sustained during the incident.

Davis, through her involvement in the Major City Chiefs Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said she and other police chiefs around the country are bracing for the possibility of a national response similar to what was seen following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

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“This incident has raised concern for chiefs around the country,” Davis said in an interview with The Daily Memphian. “I’ve been on the phone with them, myself and other cities that are experiencing protests right now for whatever reason, like Atlanta, and the chiefs in cities around the country. 

“They want to be prepared as well, because as in the George Floyd incident, people came from other cities to protest in Minneapolis, and it was very difficult to manage that without being prepared and making sure that we have all the resources that we need in order to mitigate that.”

Mounted officers were seen patrolling areas of Downtown Memphis Thursday, Jan. 26.

The police department is currently on a “level three,” which is a partial mobilization of police in emergency circumstances. Officers will not have time off, all squad cars will be manned by two officers and a central station will be set up for officers to report to. 

Asked whether Davis anticipates moving to “level four,” the highest operational level that indicates the potential for outside agencies such as the National Guard to be brought in, she said she hopes not.

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“We don’t anticipate going to a level four,” Davis said. “What will dictate that is the environment if we see activity that becomes problematic, we could ramp up. But right now we’re at a level three. We’ll be prayerful about whether or not we have to go to a high level.”

Davis said the video, which she said will be released on the city’s website, will be about an hour long. It’s the same video Nichols’ family viewed with their attorneys with their attorneys and city officials Monday, Jan. 23.

During a press conference after their private viewing, the family described the video as “heinous” and “appalling” and said Nichols can be heard asking, “What did I do?” as he was being pepper sprayed and officers used excessive force on him.

According to the family’s attorney, Ben Crump, Nichols’ last words were crying out for his mother.

Davis revealed additional details about the video. She said the video starts with officer body camera footage from the traffic stop. The most substantial coverage from the physical encounter, she said, was recorded from a SkyCop camera.

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There is also footage from body-worn cameras during the second “confrontation,” where Nichols received the majority of his injuries.

Davis said the first video shows that officers were very aggressive and that they were loud and screaming as they were attempting to arrest Nichols for reckless driving. 

“What you won’t see is what led up to the stop, and that’s where we’ve had a lot of confusion about what led up to the stop,” Davis said. “We know what was said but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to capture any recording that supports the reckless driving.”

What she read on the police report was that Nichols was seen driving on the wrong side of the road. 

“Everybody doesn’t have a camera along that area,” Davis said. “But still, it raises the question, what was the original stop for in the first place?”

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City chose Friday evening for video release to minimize impact to schools, businesses

In a CNN This Morning interview Friday morning, Davis compared the video to Rodney King, who was a victim of police brutality in 1991 but survived his injuries.

“I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident and it’s very much aligned with that same type of behavior and sort of group-think,” Davis said. “I would say it’s about the same if not worse.”

Davis told The Daily Memphian the city chose to release the footage Friday evening to avoid potential upheaval while schools and businesses are open. 

“We’ve done some exploring. The mayor has some feelings about when he thought it should go out,” Davis said. “We all want it to go out in a timely manner. However, we wanted to take under consideration that we have business people in the downtown space and other areas of the city, rush hour traffic. We have schools.

“We’ve gotten calls from the schools asking us to be considerate of the school system and children.”

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Many Memphis-area schools, including the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district, have canceled after-school events Friday in light of the video’s release.

Davis said she hasn’t spoken publicly until now because she did not want to interfere with the investigations. The police department finished its internal investigation Friday, Jan. 20, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced findings from its investigation Thursday, Jan. 26.

The U.S. Department of Justice is currently conducting its federal civil rights investigation. 

“The best thing for me to do is send information that I can send out without standing in front of people saying, ‘I can’t answer that. I can’t answer that right now. I can’t,’” Davis said. “And this is how I’ve done this is to ensure that I’ve provided regular updates and now that we have passed the point that the DA needed to interview these officers ... Now I can take interviews from people.”

Davis remains optimistic for officer staffing, retention

Davis said although the SCORPION unit was designed to help combat violent crimes, gangs and auto thefts, it also helped supplement street patrols when needed. The five officers involved in the attempted arrest of Nichols were pulled in to help with traffic controls Jan. 7, she said. 

Last year, the unit pulled more than 800 guns off the street and helped contribute to the decrease in the number of homicides and aggravated assaults from the years prior, Davis said.

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“A lot of the good work that was done by other members of these teams is a bit cloudy right now,” Davis said. 

Davis said MPD plans to do an independent assessment and has asked subject matter experts to work with the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We want to thank these guys,” Davis said. “And the reason is that we want to look at culture. And culture is something that happens over a long period of time. Even though we have the policies and we have excellent training, we want to look at supervision.”

Davis announced in a video statement Wednesday, Jan. 25, that additional officers are being investigated. In the Friday interview with The Daily Memphian, Davis said these officers were not at the scene. She said she is looking at administrative violations and said more individuals will likely receive charges. 

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“We look at those various operating procedures to make sure that supervisors do what they were supposed to do, to make sure the other officers that showed up on the scene that came to maybe just to assist, or to handle the towing of the car, or whatever the case might be, that all of that was done properly,” Davis said.

On Monday, Jan. 23, the Memphis Fire Department confirmed it had relieved two paramedics from duty pending an internal investigation. In her interview with CNN, Davis said the paramedics were being investigated for failure to render proper care.

“They just stood by,” Davis told CNN. “They began to render care and concern, but it was long after several minutes.”

As the police department falls roughly 350 officers behind its short-term 2,300 staffing goal, Davis is optimistic the department will not see any significant attrition or recruitment issues.

“I wasn’t sure what the pulse of our officers would be,” Davis told The Daily Memphian. “But most of them have responded affirmatively that we did the right thing and that they are going to continue to do the work that needs to be done.”