The horrific death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols allegedly at the hands of five Memphis police officers has stunned the nation and brought the “police reform” conversation back to the table.
We have been in the law enforcement profession for most of our adult lives. What we saw on videotape is certainly not indicative of “police culture.” Those 5 former cops look more like street gang members engaged in a ritualistic “beat down” than five police officers trying to take a resistive suspect into custody. As police trainers, we can assure you that the actions of these men were NOT routine police procedures, they were abhorrent, and some were criminal.
NO ONE is trained to rush up to a vehicle, kick someone in the head, strike above the shoulders with a baton, and deny medical aid. NOTHING they did using physical force was part of law enforcement training…literally nothing! Police are taught to CONTROL, NOT PUNISH!
So what went wrong?
Let’s start at the top. Leadership is going to be a critical factor in this case.
Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis was hired by MPD about 20 months ago. She was seen as a national advocate for “police reform” and came to Memphis with big plans to lower crime and engage the community. At the time, Memphis had a record high murder rate, low morale, and was 500 officers short. Davis had been the chief of the Durham, NC, police department for nearly 5 years. Prior to working in Durham, Davis was an Atlanta police major who was demoted to lieutenant and then fired by APD in 2008 after she allegedly told detectives not to investigate the husband of a police sergeant accused of possessing and participating in child pornography. That man was indicted, and she was reinstated after “inconsistent testimony” from a detective, although the initial investigation blamed the cover-up solely on Davis. She ultimately resigned.
The officers who brutalized Tyre Nichols did not function in a bubble, and it is unlikely this is the first time they’ve behaved in this manner. Where were the supervisors? What kind of training did these officers receive? One former MPD officer anonymously told CBS News that with a large number of officers retiring from the department, younger, less experienced members of the department were being tapped for the specialized crime reduction teams called “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods,” or SCORPION. He went on to say, “they were not well-trained and not properly managed,” describing the training as “three days of PowerPoint presentations, one day of criminal apprehension instruction and one day at the firing range.”
Specialized, proactive policing units are an excellent resource to bring order and safety to citizens who live in high-crime neighborhoods; we have both served on similar units, but these teams must be closely supervised and monitored to make sure. What we saw in the Tyre Nichols were officers (and ultimately a crime scene) apparently out of control and unsupervised.
We also must ask (and investigate) what are the hiring practices of the Memphis police department? Like most police departments, MPD has been finding it difficult to hire and retain police officers. In 2020, more than 1,800 people applied to be MPD officers, but only 53 candidates graduated from the academy. That’s fewer than 3%. The department was hoping to add more graduates because 122 officers retired from the force in 2020.
Two of the officers involved in the death of Tyre Nichols were hired in 2020 under new “relaxed standards,” including lowering both physical and educational requirements. This is becoming a nationwide trend as the law enforcement profession continues to be vilified and demonized, often for political gain or, in the case of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation ⏤ financial.
In the wake of Memphis, there are renewed calls to “defund the police” and demand to “change police culture.” What we saw the five former Memphis police officers do to Tyre Nichols was certainly not “police culture,” these were the actions of men with no regard for the life or the rights of Mr. Nichols. We don’t need to change “police culture” in this country; we need to change the “criminal culture” that continues to ravage our towns and cities. We need to go back to a justice system that punishes the criminal and protects the victim while remembering that Lady Justice wears a blindfold for a reason.
Image: City of Memphis
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