The U.S. Justice Department of Justice report on the Memphis Police Department hasn’t exactly been put on a shelf to gather dust. But the report’s path forward is unclear.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young says the city will continue to review the report’s conclusions, among them that MPD officers discriminate and use force more readily and without cause against Black Memphians and those with behavioral health disabilities including children. But Young’s administration won’t be signing off on any kind of federal oversight and mandates either by the Justice Department or by a federal court, at least for now.

Young says the city will continue to pursue changes to the MPD on its own terms and will continue to review findings from the DOJ investigation.

The Justice Department could pursue federal court action against the city to force a settlement. An agreement, or consent decree, would likely come with a hefty price tag that the city would likely have to pay for.

A Memphis mother called the police for help. Her son, an 8-year-old with behavioral disabilities, had locked his family out of the house. The mother told the Memphis Police Department that her son had a history of threatening to harm himself, and officers from the department’s crisis-intervention team responded to the call. 

Officers arrived to find the 8-year-old Black boy with his hands on his hips. He stuck out his tongue. 

A responding officer made a threat. 

What the DOJ said about how MPD responds to mental-health crises

“You this close to me taking my belt off. This close,” the officer said, using his fingers to motion an inch of time. The interaction ended with the child handcuffed in the back of the squad car as an officer threatened to shock him with a Taser’s “50,000 volts that I’m going to put in your little body.” 

The last U.S. Justice Department review of the Memphis Police Department never made it to the public.

And the timing of the decision that scrapped the report in 2017 is similar to the political environment surrounding the DOJ report released Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Five takeaways: DOJ’s investigation into MPD and city’s response

The release of the Justice Department report on its investigation into MPD and the city’s refusal — at least for now — to sign off on a plan for federal oversight of the police department comes about a month and a half before President-elect Donald Trump takes office again.

The first question at Thursday’s DOJ press conference on the new report was whether it was released in anticipation of Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

The City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department often violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by discriminating against people with behavioral-health disabilities, according to the results of the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into MPD.

MPD’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) officers, who often respond to calls regarding mental-health crises, “use unnecessary force or mock or belittle people with behavioral-health disabilities,” according to the report. 

“There are serious problems with the CIT program in Memphis. Contrary to the goals of the Memphis Model, CIT officers often escalate encounters and use combative tactics almost immediately after arriving to behavior-health calls,” the DOJ wrote. 

The report also says that many behavioral-health calls in Memphis could be resolved without law enforcement. 

The U.S. Department of Justice released the results of its investigation into the Memphis Police Department’s practices and policies on Wednesday, Dec. 4, the same day the City of Memphis sent a letter to the DOJ saying it would not enter into an agreement with the department.

The agreement — a consent decree — would allow long-term federal oversight into the city’s police reform using court-appointed independent monitors at the city’s expense.

Here are five takeaways from the report and the city’s response:

1. DOJ says MPD’s practices are unconstitutional 

The DOJ’s report found that MPD discriminates against Black residents and residents with behavioral-health issues, uses excessive force, and conducts unlawful traffic stops, searches and arrests. The report also finds that children often bear the brunt of MPD’s escalation and excessive force.

During a Thursday morning news conference and a subsequent interview, Memphis Mayor Paul Young conceded little ground when asked about the rampant civil rights violations the U.S. Department of Justice detailed in its investigation into the Memphis Police Department. 

Young and City Chief Legal Officer Tannera Gibson disputed whether MPD — a majority Black police department in a majority Black city — treats Black residents differently than white ones. 

He would not comment on that finding or any others from the DOJ’s 17-month investigation into the police department, which was opened following Tyre Nichols’ 2023 beating and death at the hands of Memphis police officers. 

“I don’t want to comment too much on their assertion until I have an opportunity to really see it...really read and dig in,” Young said. The mayor said he had flipped through the 73-page report since it had been released Wednesday evening. 

Memphis Mayor Paul Young addressed the media on Thursday, Dec. 5, on the seventh floor of City Hall and responded to the U.S. Department of Justice’s findings. He said he had not yet studied the report in depth. 

“It’s my job as mayor to fight for the best interests of our entire community,” Young said, citing that as a reason for the city not consenting to an agreement, or a consent decree, with the DOJ

Like the city did in a letter it released Wednesday, Young cited the costs of a consent decree as a significant barrier to the an agreement. 

He said consent decrees in Seattle, New Orleans and Chicago cost each city more than $100 million. He also said crime could increase under such an agreement.

The city’s refusal to enter a consent decree to reform the Memphis Police Department could lead to a lawsuit to put such an agreement in place, a top U.S. Department of Justice official said Thursday, Dec. 5.

The DOJ has the power to sue if the city does not voluntarily enter a consent decree to implement reforms, said Kristen Clarke, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

But Clarke also said the City of Memphis has been “very cooperative” and that the DOJ looks forward to continuing to work with it to address the “very severe” violations found.

Those violations include that MPD officers routinely use excessive force, discriminate against Black residents and escalate interactions with children and those with disabilities.

On Thursday morning, Dec. 5, the City of Memphis released letters from Mayor Paul Young and interim Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis. 

The letters acknowledged some of the findings in the DOJ’s scathing investigation but also continued the city’s resistance to a consent decree. That binding agreement, what’s known as a consent decree, between the DOJ and a municipality would set forth conditions for police department improvement and independent monitoring, with the city paying the cost of the independent monitors.

“However, make no mistake, we are taking the DOJ’s findings seriously and will review this lengthy report with an open mind. I believe it is crucial that we take the necessary time to thoroughly review in order to formulate a response that truly addresses the needs of Memphis,” Young said. “Our dedication to improving the Memphis Police Department is unwavering, and we believe that working with local stakeholders and national experts will yield a plan that more effectively meets our community’s needs than an overly bureaucratic, costly, and complicated Federal government consent decree.” 

Davis said in her letter that the DOJ’s investigation had been conducted with “little transparency.” However, like Young, she committed to improving the department, acknowledging that training needs to change. 

The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday the Memphis Police Department discriminates against Black residents and those with behavioral-health issues.

The DOJ alleges the city engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution.

The department found:

• MPD uses excessive force.

• MPD conducts unlawful stops, searches and arrests.

• MPD unlawfully discriminates against Black people when enforcing the law.

• The City and MPD unlawfully discriminate in their response to people with behavioral-health disabilities.

Those were the main findings of the DOJ’s 17-month investigation into the city and MPD. The department opened its investigation into MPD following Tyre Nichols’ 2023 beating and death at the hands of Memphis police officers. Nichols’ death happened after he was stopped for unclear reasons by members of a now-disbanded MPD special unit known as SCORPION. 

The City of Memphis does not plan on entering an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice following the department’s civil rights investigation into the Memphis Police Department, City Attorney Tannera Gibson said in a letter to the DOJ this week. 

“The Agreement would require the City to agree in principle to negotiate a consent decree aimed at institutional police and emergency service improvement without having adequate time or opportunity to review and/or vet the DOJ’s forthcoming findings report. In the best interest of our community, we cannot do that. Moreover, the investigation and unreleased findings only took 17 months to complete, compared to an average of 2-3 years in almost every other instance, implying a rush to judgment,” Gibson wrote. 

The city’s letter cited the cost of such a consent decree and argued that it was not right for Memphians. 

“Until the City has had the opportunity to review, analyze, and challenge the specific allegations that support your forthcoming findings report, the City cannot — and will not —agree to work toward or enter into a consent decree that will likely be in place for years to come and will cost the residents of Memphis hundreds of millions of dollars,” Gibson wrote in her letter. “From what we understand, consent decrees remain in place for an average of more than ten years, with absolutely no controls to ensure timely completion or consideration for the financial impact to the affected community.”