Stand for Children Joins The Seven States Safety Campaign, which targets police departments where the Biden DOJ found rampant police brutality and racial targeting.
MEMPHIS, TENN. – Stand for Children Tennessee joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and partners across the country in launching the Seven States Safety Campaign, a coordinated effort to demand transparency and accountability from police departments with documented patterns of abuse. As the lead community partner in Memphis, Stand TN supported the ACLU’s submission of a public records request to uncover misconduct and civil rights violations by the Memphis Police Department (MPD).
These requests come in the wake of the December 2024 Department of Justice report, which confirmed what Memphis communities have said for years: MPD uses excessive force, targets Black residents, unlawfully stops and searches people, and discriminates against youth and people in crisis. Yet months later, the City of Memphis has taken little meaningful action, and the mayor’s Integrity in Policing Task Force has lacked clarity, transparency, and community accountability.
“The DOJ’s findings confirmed what Memphis communities have said for years: MPD’s abuse, excessive force, and lack of accountability are systemic, not isolated,” said Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee. “While city leaders chase an arbitrary ‘magic number’ of police, they’ve failed to invest in what truly keeps us safe: youth programs, mental health care, housing, transit, and more. This request for records will give us and other partners more power to push for the bold changes Memphis needs.”
In addition to Tennessee, the demands are being filed in Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Kentucky – states where federal civil rights investigations and reports confirmed widespread patterns of police abuse. The Trump administration has already begun to halt federal oversight and reverse course, including by retracting findings in Tennessee, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and rescinding near-final agreements and dismissing lawsuits against the police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville. As the federal government pulls back on police oversight, local communities are stepping up and calling for transparency and real reform.
Stand for Children Tennessee remains committed to working with local youth, families, and coalitions to build an accountable, fair public safety system grounded in community voice and rooted in justice, not punishment.
A copy of the open records request submitted today can be found on Stand for Children Tennessee’s website here: https://stand.org/tennessee/memphis-police-department-official-records-request/