Memphis will not agree to negotiate federal oversight of its police department until it can review and challenge results of a yet-to-be-released Department of Justice investigation into how its officers use force and treat minorities, according to a letter released by the city on Wednesday.
In the letter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Memphis City Attorney Tannera George Gibson said the city has received a request from the DOJ to enter into an agreement that would require it to “negotiate a consent decree aimed at institutional police and emergency services.”
In July 2023, the Justice Department announced an investigation into the Memphis Police Department, looking at the department’s “pattern or practice” of how it uses force and conducts stops, searches and arrests, and whether it engages in discriminatory policing. The findings of the investigation, which was announced six months after the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols by police, have not been released.
A consent decree is an agreement requiring reforms that are overseen by an independent monitor and are approved by a federal judge. The federal oversight can continue for years, and violations could result in fines paid by the city.
It remains to be seen what will happen to attempts to reach such agreements between cities and the Justice Department once President-elect Donald Trump returns to office and installs new department leadership. The Justice Department under the first Trump administration curtailed the use of consent decrees, and the Republican president-elect is expected to again radically reshape the department’s priorities around civil rights.
The city’s letter said “a legal finding supporting the contention that the City’s patterns and practices violate the Constitution requires a legal process,” which includes the city's ability to challenge the DOJ's methods of evaluating information and the credibility of witnesses.
“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,” the letter said.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police video showed officers pepper spraying Nichols and hitting him with a Taser before he ran away from a traffic stop. Five officers chased down Nichols and kicked, punched and hit him with a police baton just steps from his home as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries.
Nichols died on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. The five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were fired, charged in state court with murder, and indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges.
Nichols was Black, as are the former officers. His death led to national protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the U.S., and directed intense scrutiny towards the Memphis Police Department.
The officers were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit, which was disbanded after Nichols’ death. The team targeted drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders, with the goal of amassing arrest numbers, while sometimes using force against unarmed people.
Martin and Mills pleaded guilty to the federal charges under deals with prosecutors. The other three officers were convicted in early October of witness tampering related to the cover-up of the beating. Bean and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges of using excessive force and being indifferent to Nichols’ serious injuries.
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. The 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. Bean, Haley and Smith have also pleaded not guilty to state charges of second-degree murder. A trial in the state case has been set for April 28.
Justice Department investigators have targeted other cities with similar probes in recent years.
On Nov. 21, the department said police in New Jersey’s capital of Trenton have shown a pattern of misconduct, including using excessive force and making unlawful stops. The DOJ’s report documented arrests without legal basis, officers escalating situations with aggression and unnecessary use of pepper spray.
In June 2023, another Justice Department probe alleged that Minneapolis police systematically discriminated against racial minorities, violated constitutional rights and disregarded the safety of people in custody for years before George Floyd was killed.
In March 2023, the department found police in Louisville, Kentucky, engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discrimination against the Black community following an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.
In its letter, the city of Memphis said the DOJ's investigation “only took 17 months to complete, compared to an average of 2-3 years in almost every other instance, implying a rush to judgment.”
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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
