Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis says the department could release more body camera footage from use-of-force incidents than it does. 

In an interview about her impressions of the data in a recent poll by The Daily Memphian along with other topics, Davis was asked about body camera usage, which residents support. MPD is investing more taxpayer dollars in the technology. 

Dig in to The Daily Memphian’s crime poll data

Davis also spoke about Operation Broken Bottles — an operation that led to more than a dozen arrests related to thefts from local businesses. She said more charges could be coming, including federal charges. 

The Daily Memphian: What were your initial impressions of what you read in the poll data?

Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis: I wasn’t surprised. As a citizen, I put on my citizen hat sometimes so that I can get a better perspective of what community members are feeling. And it helps guide me and my actions to just think in terms of being a community member (as far as) what we’re seeing and being exposed to.

The biggest group of people, roughly 40%, think MPD is average. Why do you think people think that? 

I could probably guess, in a number of ways, they may feel that MPD is average based on what outcomes they see in the community, whether it’s a direct correlation with the work that we do or what the entire system is producing. So when people don’t see significant change, they may have a tendency to think that public safety, in general, is average.

... There are so many other contributing factors and other players in this ecosystem of criminal justice that’s really important to a successful outcome.

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What are those other players?

I would say ... ensuring that there are health organizations and social services in place for various types of community problems. We have a significant number of individuals that we encounter on a daily basis that suffer from mental illness, and sometimes that gets classified as, you know, criminal activity when really a person is having a mental crisis.

We have a direct relationship with our school system and our juvenile court system, our district attorney’s office, our jail. There are several partners, and that’s what I’m gonna call them — several partners in this ecosystem of criminal justice. We all have to be in lockstep and ensure that we’re doing our part.

I think we’re getting there, but it does require us to have much more open communication about what success looks like and how we can do better.

The data shows people want more community policing. And for years, the city has sought more police officers as a way to implement that desire. Assuming that manpower stays constant, which it roughly has, what can be done on that front? How can more community policing happen without more officers if the status quo doesn’t change?

I’ve always believed that community policing is not a specific unit. It’s not a specific person or commander in the police department. It’s just the culture of the department and everything that we do. And when I say that — every officer, every encounter — there has to be a community policing element involved in the work that our officers do. It can’t be just that we respond to calls for service all day.

We have to ensure that our officers are utilizing time to build relationships, to get to know community members, and we can’t wait until we hit that 2,500 mark so that we can sort of recreate (COACT Units) that existed years ago when we did have 2,500 officers.

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We’re trying to be creative now (about how) we re-implement some of those community policing elements with the staff that we have. Also, we brought back retired officers, just being creative in how we utilize the resources that we have.”

Could you give me an example besides retired officers of some of that creativity?

We have officers that actually are dropping in on retail establishments that help them to shore up their businesses ... it’s really educating our officers so that they can be an extension of what crime prevention looks like and building those relationships in the community.

Another interesting aspect of the survey is how frequently people see speeding and reckless driving. This comes at a time when people see social media posts of people doing doughnuts at an intersection in the presence of a police officer and nothing happening. What is being done to make the streets safer? 

We’ve had to be creative in that regard as well. We have had reductions in drag racing. We’ve had reductions in reckless driving only because we’ve had to shore up various traffic enforcement units. We’ve increased the number of motorcycle units. We added an additional 10 motorcycle officers for the purpose of calming traffic. 

This is something that’s been missing in the Memphis Police Department for some time now — the level of traffic enforcement that’s really needed for a city this size. 

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We are twice the size geographically as a lot of major cities. A lot of people don’t realize we’re twice the size of Atlanta. We’re twice the size of some other major cities, and we don’t have nearly enough officers to really deal with the level of traffic that we’re having to address.

The reckless driving piece has been one that we always have to think about officers' safety when they’re involved. 

“Sometimes, it’s difficult for one officer to deal with individuals, especially when they have guns. And many of these meetups — and that’s what we call them — involve individuals that have all kinds of weapons.”

There is no maneuver for an officer to be able to stop someone doing doughnuts. What is in place is for us to be able to monitor, get information, conduct even surveillance sometimes for the weekend, identify some of the regular and bad actors and actually conduct details to make an arrest when it’s appropriate.

Sometimes, it’s difficult for one officer to deal with individuals, especially when they have guns. And many of these meetups — and that’s what we call them — involve individuals that have all kinds of weapons.

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The data shows people want to see some tightening of gun laws in this area. How can this be accomplished since open carry has come into play? How has that changed how the police can interact with people?

Just looking at the survey, the survey really confirmed what we’ve ... been communicating about in public forums and just the public discourse about gun control. And here, 86% of this particular survey indicates that our community members want more gun control. We saw upticks in gun crimes on the heels of permitless carry. We saw just normal kinds of conflicts that occur on a regular basis, where they end up in some type of physical fight, turn into a gunfight. 

The affinity for guns has been a phenomenon that’s very difficult for us to address, especially since we have such liberal laws in the state of Tennessee. It’s a frustration for chiefs not just in this area, but across the state.

Can the public expect Memphis Police to release more video of use-of-force incidents in an effort to be more transparent?

We are actually in ... conversations with our city law department about what our new protocols will be (in relation) to the release of body cam footage. So you can look forward to that. There will be a process (but) there will be limitations based on the circumstances. But I totally believe in transparency.

So there will be, you know, some new processes in the very near future on how we release body cam footage, of course. We’ll be working also with the DA’s office on any type of release, especially if there are pending criminal charges. We’re not going to operate in a silo in that regard. But we do plan to establish a policy that allows for that transparency.

How much does organized crime — whether it’s gangs or some other type of organized crime — drive the crime rate in this city compared to just the random interactions of people in disputes and otherwise?

I would say that we have the element of organized crime in the city. How sophisticated it is depends on the actor. Sometimes, it’s played out very recklessly and not very sophisticated, just a group of young individuals that decided to get together and commit some crime collectively.

But this (Operation Broken Bottles) involves several individuals that we believe conspired over a period of time before each act. Sometimes, the acts or the incidents occurred multiple times in one night.

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However, even though we had those 15 indictments, the span of the investigation is much broader. And the city can expect us to have more indictments. We plan to continue to take a deep dive into some of these more organized crime-type rings that are attacking our business owners or retail establishments and sometimes even breaking into vehicles that are organized crime as well.

When you see 20 vehicles hit in a parking lot at a particular time of night — when it’s seven or eight individuals — they’re working together for some type of financial benefit. 

These are the types of incidents that we want to curtail and continue to aggressively go after those actors, even if it rises to the level of federal charges. We plan to work with our U.S. Attorney’s Office, who has been very vocal about assisting with federal charges as well.

Would those federal charges include RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges?

They could. If we could prove the elements of sort of an organized gang enterprise, they could very well rise to that RICO level.

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In terms of the smash and grabs that have occurred at liquor stores, retail establishments, etc., are the perpetrators keeping it for themselves, or are they fencing it for cash?

It’s either/or. Sometimes, these individuals — especially those that are a little bit more organized — they may even have individuals taking some of these goods in other places other than the Memphis area ... (it’s a lucrative business when) it’s a high-end vehicle, and you need the parts in that vehicle to sell to some other person who was running a chop shop. That in itself is a way for individuals to make money through that level of criminal activity.