Lawrence Sumlin, 60, died in the jail’s intake area in the early hours of Nov. 22, 2024.

Commercial retail thefts are down significantly this year compared to last, according to the Memphis Police Department. 

MPD spends more than a million dollars a year on overtime to staff special events. But it’s billing for only 60%, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the other 40%. 

A change in how federal criminal cases are processed has left violence hotlines, domestic violence shelters and child-abuse counseling centers struggling — and looking to the State of Tennessee for help.

Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis talks on “Behind The Headlines” about getting group violence-intervention right by looking at Detroit’s approach, the pressure that comes with last year’s drop in crime and more.

A local pastor was shot and killed on Kentucky Street outside of Momma’s early Wednesday morning, March 12.

Kelsey pleaded guilty in November 2022 to charges related to his attempts to funnel campaign money from his state legislative seat toward his failed 2016 congressional bid and he reported to federal prison last month. 

Two Shelby County judgeships have been eliminated in the recent past rather than appointing new judges to the bench. 

“Everyone has this thing that crime scenes are this complicated thing. But really and truly, they’re not,” one expert said.

The trial for two of the corrections deputies charged in the 2022 death of Gershun Freeman at the Shelby County Jail has been delayed seven months.

Looking at a city spanning 300-plus square miles, public safety consultant Fausto Pichardo has some thoughts about traffic stops, consent decrees and what needs to be done next. 

A Shelby County judge ruled Thursday, March 6, that the City of Memphis violated its contract with the Memphis Police Association when it created the controversial rank of 2nd Lieutenant. 

In his first interview since he came to Memphis last year, public safety consultant Fausto Pichardo said citizens should expect a further reduction in violent crime as the the police department builds cases against gang members.

Sherman Weakley, 22, died by suicide, according to his official autopsy.

Vanessa Murtaugh, 46, was indicted Feb. 27 for statutory rape by an authority figure and aggravated statutory rape. 

The gynecologist did not tell patients that he was re-using the devices, prosecutors said, and also billed Medicare and Medicaid as if the procedures were necessary.

An argument about a phone led to an 11-year-old girl stabbing a 10-year-old girl in the back with a kitchen knife at Hamilton K-8 Friday, police said.

Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. entered the Odell Horton Federal Building in Downtown Memphis at about 9:35 a.m. Friday, Feb. 28. 

The inmate, Ramon McGhee, 42, died in the hospital Jan. 12, 2024, two days after being found in his cell at 201 Poplar unresponsive and covered in bedbugs.

The Shelby County Health Department recommends local hospitals adopt the “opt-out” approach, in which an HIV test will be part of a patient’s medical visit unless they decline. 

DeSoto County officials have adjusted the wording of legislation in hopes of Mississippi law enforcement assisting with detaining illegal immigrants.

A large volume of court-reform bills filed by Shelby County legislators will appear in Tennessee House of Representatives and Senate committee hearings in coming weeks.

Former Memphian Alice Marie Johnson, who spent 21 years in prison for drug trafficking before being released in 2018, has been named the new presidential administration’s “pardon czar.”

The city ethics board members voted unanimously Friday, Feb. 21 to dismiss a complaint filed earlier this month against the Memphis fire chief.

Emmitt Martin III, who pleaded guilty last year at the federal level to his role in Nichols’ death, turned himself in Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest.