Category: Moral Budget

The Department of Justice’s comprehensive investigation into the Memphis Police Department (MPD) confirms what our community has long known and consistently voiced: MPD engages in a pattern of conduct that violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law. The findings—that MPD uses excessive force, conducts unlawful stops and searches, discriminates against Black people and people with behavioral health disabilities, and mistreats children—are both a damning indictment and a call to action.

We are grateful to the DOJ for thoroughly documenting these systemic violations and validating the lived experiences of so many Memphians. For years, our community has urged local leaders to address these issues, only to be met with denial and delay. Today’s report leaves no room for debate: our city’s approach to policing has been deeply flawed, harmful, and unconstitutional.

This report adds to a growing body of evidence that Memphis has failed to provide justice and safety for all its residents. From the DOJ’s previous findings on the juvenile justice system to today’s revelations about MPD’s conduct, it is clear that change must go deeper than surface-level. Justice demands accountability, a reimagining of public safety, and investment in policies and practices that truly center the dignity and value of every person in our community.

Community Plans Align Closely with DOJ Recommendations

The DOJ’s findings make clear that MPD’s patterns of excessive force, unconstitutional traffic stops, and discriminatory practices require urgent and systemic change. We put several community plans and reports into ChatGPT to compare them with the DOJ’s findings, and we found that the DOJ’s Recommended Remedial Measures echo many of the solutions Memphis communities have long been advocating for.

• The Justice & Safety Alliance (JSA): The JSA’s proposals and the Policing Reimagined Report emphasize shifting away from over-policing and investing in community-based solutions. Their calls to reinvest city and county resources into public health and community development aligns with the DOJ’s critique of MPD’s saturation policing strategies. The DOJ report also validates their calls to use data-driven approaches to reduce racial disparities, enhance the external oversight of policing practices, and prioritize restorative and developmentally appropriate interventions for young people. 
  
• Decarcerate Memphis: This coalition has consistently highlighted the harms of pretextual traffic stops (documented in the People’s Report: Driving While BIPOC), which the DOJ report confirms disproportionately target Black drivers. Their demands for transparency, public accountability through accessible data dashboards, and an end to pretextual stops align directly with the DOJ’s findings on MPD’s unconstitutional practices.
  
• The Moral Budget Coalition: Advocates for reallocating funds from punitive systems to essential public resources such as housing, mental health, and education. The Moral Budget funding priorities align closely with DOJ recommendations to address systemic inequities through community-based investments, supporting alternatives to policing and promoting public safety rooted in equity and justice.
  
• Memphis Policing Ordinances (2023): Following the preventable police killing of Tyre Nichols, the City of Memphis passed ordinances limiting traffic stops for secondary violations, enhancing civilian oversight authority (CLERB), and requiring data transparency, due in large part from advocacy led by Official Black Lives Matter and Decarcerate Memphis. These reforms reflect some of the exact changes the DOJ highlights as necessary to curb unconstitutional practices. 

The egregious patterns of MPD’s mistreatment of children, including Black children and those with behavioral health disabilities, are particularly disturbing. The documented instances of officers threatening, handcuffing, and needlessly escalating situations with children as young as 8 years old are horrifying and unacceptable. These actions not only violate the constitutional rights of children but also inflict lasting harm on their well-being. Officers sworn to serve and protect should never resort to the kind of intimidation, threats, abuse, and excessive force outlined in the DOJ’s findings, especially against our kids. Memphis must commit to evidence-based, trauma-informed practices to ensure that interactions with children prioritize de-escalation, safety, and care.

The alignment between community-driven plans and the DOJ’s recommendations is no accident. These recommendations come directly from the real, all too common experiences of those most harmed by MPD’s unconstitutional and abusive practices. For our communities, these solutions are common-sense reforms rooted in the pursuit of equity, justice, and public safety for all.

A Consent Decree: Independent Oversight Is Non-Negotiable

While the DOJ report validates community demands, we can’t stop at validation alone. Without an external, independent oversight structure, we have serious concerns that MPD will continue its patterns of constitutional violations unchecked. That’s why we’ve joined the calls for Mayor Paul Young to enter into a consent decree with the DOJ.

A consent decree would establish a legally binding agreement between the City of Memphis and the DOJ, overseen by an independent monitor. This structure is essential to ensure that MPD adopts and sustains the reforms outlined in the DOJ’s report. For too long, the debate around safety in Memphis has been reduced to demands for a “magic number” of officers, as though more police alone can solve systemic issues. These findings show that the issue is not quantity, but quality—how officers are trained, supervised, and held accountable, and how we ensure public safety reflects the values of equity, fairness, and respect for our humanity. Community trust cannot be rebuilt without transparency and accountability, and MPD has demonstrated time and again that it cannot self-correct. 

While we have real concerns about what could happen with a consent decree under the incoming Trump administration, at the very least this agreement would put a structure in place that contributes to ongoing community efforts to ensure oversight and progress.

The Time for Action Is Now

The DOJ report is not just a critique of MPD; it’s a roadmap for change. But the solutions must be implemented with the urgency and accountability that only independent oversight can provide. Memphis cannot afford to let this moment pass without committing to transformative reform. The communities that have experienced the worst of MPD’s unconstitutional practices deserve nothing less than systemic change and lasting justice for themselves, our young people, and generations to come.

Let’s honor the tireless advocacy of those who have been leading this fight—not just by celebrating the alignment between community plans and DOJ recommendations, but by demanding the structural oversight needed to bring those recommendations to life.