Topic
Memphis policing, on the record. This page tracks the Memphis Police Department's budget, overtime, lawsuits, oversight, and use of force, along with the public bodies that fund and govern it. Policing is the city's largest public-safety expense and its most scrutinized.
Seven of the eight involved an officer firing a weapon. The eighth involved someone being run over. Every investigation is active and ongoing, and no finding has been released in any of them.
The 901 Report
The city's FY2027 general fund raised its lawsuits appropriation nearly thirteenfold, from $540,977 to $6,925,000. The federal civil trial over Tyre Nichols' death is set for November 9 and expected to run four weeks. A city attorney has previously written that the amount sought could bankrupt Memphis.
The 901 Report
A new report from the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission puts major violent crime down 31.5 percent in the city. The data is early-stage, and Memphis has seen these figures revised before.
The 901 Report
District Attorney Steve Mulroy found the shooting legally justified and declined to prosecute. None of the four DEA agents who entered the Frayser Burger King were wearing body cameras. Pigram's death was the first of four fatal Memphis Safe Task Force shootings this year.
The 901 Report
State investigators have opened eight use-of-force inquiries into the federal task force since September. Two of the four fatal shootings came within four days this month, and civic leaders are now calling for the unit to leave the city.
The 901 Report
Tyrin Johnson, 20, was killed by a Tennessee National Guard member. Alfonso Ivy, 47, was killed days later in a DEA-led warrant service. State records show task force shootings now match the total for MPD and the Sheriff's Office for all of 2024. The NAACP is demanding a federal investigation. Nobody has been charged, and the investigations are open.
The 901 Report
Civil liberties groups are pressing MPD to follow a decades-old court order limiting surveillance as federal agents and National Guard troops operate in the city. Supporters of the deployment say the goal is reducing violent crime.
The 901 Report
The ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against the Memphis Safe Task Force on behalf of four residents, one week after a DEA agent working under the task force shot and killed a man at a Frayser Burger King.
The 901 Report