Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has announced that the Justice Department will conduct an external review of the city’s police force after the filmed, merciless fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
According to the mayor, the review by the International Association of Police Chiefs and the DOJ’s Collaborative Reform Initial Technical Assistant Center will include an assessment of the Memphis Police Department’s special units and its policies on use of force. The DOJ program’s website says its services include “training, peer-to-peer consultation, analysis, coaching, and strategic planning.”
The news came the same day that Memphis announced that it had fired a sixth police officer involved in the incident. The DOJ previously had opened a civil rights case into the traffic stop that preceded Nichols’ brutal beating, but the broader review of the Tennessee city’s police force can show whether the incident was part of a pattern.
The review will be conducted as part of the the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. The office, according to its website, “awards grants to hire community policing professionals, develop and test innovative policing strategies, and provide training and technical assistance to community members, local government leaders, and all levels of law enforcement.”
Note: Republicans have sought to slash the office’s funding.
How’s that for “defund the police”?
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.