Memphis police ‘harm and demean’ people, DOJ says after issuing scathing report calling for reforms

By Nick Valencia and Devon M. Sayers, CNN

(CNN) — A scathing report from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division found the Memphis Police Department engages in a pattern of discriminatory policing, including violence against the disabled, and regularly violates the constitutional rights of its residents, particularly Black people.

Historically, similar reports by the feds have led to the overhaul of local police departments with federal monitoring agreements known as consent decrees. However, in a letter responding to the DOJ’s claims, the city of Memphis said it’s not ready to accept the findings, and the police chief said her department has made hundreds of changes in recent years to “improve officer response.”

The investigation found the Memphis Police Department “engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, conducting unlawful stops, searches and arrests and discriminatory policing of Black people and residents with behavioral health disabilities,” the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in the report.

In one of the most egregious examples in the report, an 8-year-old Black boy with behavioral health issues was grabbed by the responding police officer, lifted into the air and thrown onto a couch.

“Memphis police officers handcuff children as young as 8-years-old even when they pose no safety risk,” the report said.

The investigation into the Memphis Police Department was launched 17 months ago after motorist Tyre Nichols’ violent beating death. Officers repeatedly punched, kicked and dragged Nichols during his arrest after a 2023 traffic stop, video of the incident showed.

Five officers were fired, arrested on state murder charges and indicted on federal civil rights and witness tampering charges. The encounter prompted renewed national debate on justice in policing and reform and spurred protests and vigils in Memphis and other major US cities.

Speaking at a Thursday morning news conference, Clarke said the actions of Memphis police “harm and demean people and they promote distrust undermining the fundamental safety mission of a police department.”

“Let me be clear, these tactics do not make Memphis safer,” Clarke added.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young said his administration “takes the DOJ findings seriously, and we’ll review this report with an open mind to the recommendations.”

Police will “continue and expand” on adjustments already made, and the city can lean on community input and independent national experts, Young said Thursday at a news conference.

“We agree that our police department should always strive for improvement,” Young said. “However, we don’t believe that the consent decree is the most effective way or efficient way to achieve the results that our community needs and deserves.”

Asked at the news conference about the city’s response, acting US Attorney Reagan Taylor Fondren said, “We hope to work with the city to implement the necessary reforms.”

With a consent decree, a judge can keep tabs on a police department to make sure it’s in compliance to the court-ordered agreement. The purpose is to hold police departments accused of misconduct accountable.

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis said her department has already worked to make changes.

“In the last three years, we have changed over 700 policies… that help to direct process, help to improve officer response. Community engagement has been a significant part of the work we have been doing,” Davis said during a news conference Wednesday.

The city of Memphis’ response to the DOJ report comes as President-elect Donald Trump is about to re-take control of the Justice Department. During the previous Trump administration these types of oversight and monitoring agreements were abandoned.

Asked about the timing, Fondren said, “The mission of the Department of Justice is to protect civil rights for all people, so the career employees of the Department of Justice and federal prosecutors of the United States Attorney’s Office will continue that mission through any administration.”

Incidents like the one involving Nichols are addressed in the 73-page report saying, “MPD officers regularly escalate encounters involving nonviolent offenses and use unreasonable force against unarmed people who pose no threat.”

“Officers use disproportionate force against people who have committed, at most, minor offenses such as traffic infractions, and use force even after people are restrained,” the report continues.

Those actions mirror what was seen in videos released as part of the investigation into the beating death of Nichols.

The Rev. Earle J. Fisher, senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Memphis, had “a bunch of mixed emotions” about the release of the report, he said.

“It is hard to feel any level of vindication,” Fisher told CNN’s Jim Acosta Thursday morning. “What you see in this report is there is a system and structure in place. And I hope that the city administration can find a way to work more directly with the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and find something that they can be held accountable to.”

State Democratic Rep. Justin Jones questioned what ultimately becomes of the DOJ’s civil rights investigation.

“Will there be any action on this report from the federal level once this new administration takes hold?” Jones told CNN. “Will the DOJ become complicit in these racialized systems that often violate civil rights?”

In criminal court proceedings dealing with Nichols’ death, ex-officers Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills pleaded guilty to federal charges under deals with prosecutors, according to The Associated Press. The other three officers were convicted in October of witness tampering related to the cover-up of the beating. Ex-officers Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges of using excessive force and being indifferent to Nichols’ serious injuries, AP reported.

A fifth former officer, Demetrius Haley, was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but he was convicted of two lesser charges of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury, according to AP. All five men face sentencing by a federal judge in the coming months.

Martin and Mills also are expected to change their not-guilty pleas in state court, according to lawyers involved in the case, AP reported. Bean, Haley and Smith have pleaded not guilty to state charges of second-degree murder. A trial in the state case is set for April 28.

Nichols’ death raised many questions about policing practices in general and specifically in Tennessee.

Notably the Memphis City Council passed the “Driving Equality Act in Honor of Tyre Nichols,” which prohibited police stops for minor infractions.

The Memphis measure was eventually blocked when the Republican-controlled Tennessee legislature passed a bill “that prohibits or limits the ability of a law enforcement agency to take all necessary steps that are lawful under state and federal law to fulfill the law enforcement agency’s duties to prevent and detect crime and apprehend criminal offenders.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Ryan Young contributed to this report.