The US Department of Justice has announced an investigation into the city of Memphis and the Memphis police department (MPD) over its policing practices to examine if they are discriminatory.
The civil pattern or practice investigation will determine if Memphis police violated federal laws or the US constitution. The announcement comes after the police department came under scrutiny for its use of force, stops, searches and arrests that often targeted people of color.
One of these instances involved Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died on 10 January, three days after an encounter with Memphis police during a traffic stop in which he was violently beaten.
Nichols’s death caused headlines across the US and around the world and triggered yet another bout of national soul searching around brutality and racism in American law enforcement.
In a statement, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, said: “The tragic death of Tyre Nichols created enormous pain in the Memphis community and across the country.”
He added: “The justice department is launching this investigation to examine serious allegations that the city of Memphis and the Memphis police department engage in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct and discriminatory policing based on race, including a dangerously aggressive approach to traffic enforcement.”
The five officers involved – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr and Justin Smith – were part of a crime-suppression team known as Scorpion and have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges including second-degree murder.
After Nichols’s death, Scorpion was disbanded by the police chief.
The five officers charged in the case are also Black, underscoring the complicated relationship between law enforcement and the communities they represent and are meant to protect.
Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the justice department’s civil rights division, said: “We have reviewed information that indicates that the Memphis police department may be using an approach to street enforcement that can result in violations of federal law, including racially discriminatory stops of Black people for minor violations.”
In addition to the five officers charged with murder, one officer involved was fired and another retired.
Additionally, two Shelby county sheriff’s deputies who went to the location after the beating were suspended for five days for policy violations and three Memphis fire department emergency medical technicians were fired for failing to render aid to Nichols.
In recent years, the justice department has launched similar investigations around the country involving police brutality.
In June, an investigation alleged Minneapolis police were systematically discriminating against racial minorities, violating constitutional rights and disregarding the safety of people in custody for years before George Floyd was killed.
And in March, the department found Louisville police 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.
The justice department said this Memphis civil investigation is separate and independent from the federal criminal civil rights investigation of MPD officers related to the death of Nichols.
Depending on the findings of the investigation, it is possible reforms of the police department overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge could be required.
