Rallings says police department numbers too low for community policing push
Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings (middle) attends a press conference on Aug. 6, 2020. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian)
Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings says he doesn’t have enough police officers to carry out a City Council set of recommendations that calls for more community policing programs including a police presence in three neighborhoods.
“We never stopped community policing,” he told City Council members during a Tuesday, Jan. 5, committee session. “It is a department-wide philosophy, but the pandemic has slowed us down.”
“The MPD would love to have a larger footprint within the community,” Rallings said. “But with our current staffing shortages, we can’t ignore those shortages. We struggle daily under normal circumstances.”
The familiar call for more police officers drew immediate pushback from council member Jamita Swearengen, who pushed for a return to COACT police units that were set up in several communities and later phased out by police during the move to the Blue CRUSH approach to focusing police on crime hot spots.
“We’re going to have to become a little broader in our thinking,” she told Rallings. “But it can be done. … We’re trying to seek different results. You don’t know what can work until we try it. We voted on this resolution.”
Council member Rhonda Logan led the task force that included administration officials and police leadership. It came up with the recommendations the council accepted last year.
“We didn’t just make it up,” she said of the goal of three COACT units based on current officer staffing for MPD. Sweargengen originally called for six COACT units to be restored, and three was a compromise the task force made working with police leadership.
“Being able to rework something else to get that done is vitally important,” Logan said of the goal of three COACT centers. “Just to say you don’t have enough staff — that’s unacceptable because you can start where you are. This work is just as important in stopping the cycle (of crime).”
In a New Year memo to the council, Mayor Jim Strickland backed up Rallings on the call to return to COACT units.
“When the pandemic is over, under current staffing levels, MPD may be able to staff two COACT units of 10 officers and one supervisors,” he wrote. “During the pandemic, however, officer and supervisor shortages are too extensive for such a commitment.”
In the same memo, Strickland indicated support for the task force’s recommendation of a police force of 2,500 officers. As of Tuesday, the department has 2,035 officers in the ranks.
“We believe that the current MPD budget is probably adequate to cover 2,500 officers because the overtime budget will decrease as we build to 2,500. And that decrease can cover the salaries of the new officers.”
Strickland and Rallings called for a police force of 2,800 this past summer — a dramatic shift from the longer-held goal of 2,300 to 2,400. It came as the council removed a ballot question from the November elections in Memphis that would have allowed police officers and firefighters to live outside Shelby County.
Strickland said the relaxed residency requirement was crucial to recruiting and retaining enough police officers. He vetoed the council action taking the charter change off the ballot. The council overrode the veto.
Rallings also touted federal assistance under the Justice Department’s Operation LeGend for helping in 2020, which saw a record homicide count for the city.
Council member Chase Carlisle noted that the Justice Department initiative is controversial, with some on the council likening it to a federal occupation force that the city did not seek.
He said council members were “talking past each other” and that it is possible to beef up the response to violent crime and pursue police reform.
“When we desperately need help and resources, I think it’s important to stay the course,” he said. “We need resources and tougher sentences.”
Strickland’s New Year’s memo also ruled out the group’s recommendation to consider a law enforcement basic training academy on the Lemoyne-Owen College campus in South Memphis, citing a cost of $10 million in construction costs not including land acquisition and $8.2 million a year to operate the training center.
Strickland said talks continue with the college and the Memphis Fire Department on a firefighting curriculum.
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Memphis Police Department community policing Memphis City Council Michael Rallings Jamita SwearengenBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for more than 40 years.
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