Memphis Police Used Excessive Force and Discriminated Against Black Residents, Justice Dept. Finds

Politics|Memphis Police Used Excessive Force and Discriminated Against Black Residents, Justice Dept. Finds

The Justice Department released the results of its investigation into the Memphis Police Department on Wednesday, finding that the agency used excessive force, treated Black people more harshly than white people, and mistreated people with mental health issues. The report said that the civil rights violations had a “corrosive effect.”

The Police Department has been under scrutiny since January 2023, when officers fatally beat Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after pulling him over on his way home from work. The body and street camera footage that captured the violence prompted a national outcry, and testimony from other residents about the agency’s pattern of excessive force.

The Justice Department started a civil rights investigation, known as a pattern-or-practice inquiry, six months after Mr. Nichols’s death. The investigation is separate from the series of federal and state charges that have been filed against five former Memphis officers in connection with Mr. Nichols’s death.

“The people of Memphis deserve a Police Department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement on Wednesday. She added that the agency was looking forward “to instituting reforms that will address the harms we identified.”

It is unclear, however, what policing changes would be enacted. Shortly before the report was released, the city of Memphis sent a letter to the Justice Department rejecting its push to negotiate an agreement to overhaul the Police Department, saying that “there are better ways to reimagine policing that do not slow the process or cost the taxpayers millions of dollars.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.