MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) 鈥� Memphis' mayor pushed back Thursday against the need for a Justice Department deal to enact reforms in light of the scathing findings of an investigation into the Memphis Police Department, saying the city has already made hundreds of positive changes since the beating .
Although he didn鈥檛 rule out eventually agreeing to a consent decree with the Justice Department, Mayor Paul Young said he thinks the city can make changes more effectively without committing to a binding pact. The launched after Nichols鈥� death found that Memphis officers routinely use unwarranted force and disproportionately target Black people.
鈥淲e believe we can make more effective and meaningful change by working together with community input and independent national experts than with a bureaucratic, costly, and complicated federal government consent decree,鈥� Young said at a news conference.
His remarks came minutes after a top Justice Department official warned that the DOJ could sue to require reforms of Memphis鈥� police force should the city refuse to sign an agreement.
With a more about to take over in Washington, the city could be biding its time in the hopes that the Justice Department under could let the matter drop. Neither Justice Department nor city officials were willing to delve into that issue 鈥� the mayor said he would have the same position regardless of the presidential election's outcome; and acting U.S. Attorney Reagan Fondren said federal prosecutors will continue their work regardless of who's in the White House.
The investigation determined that police in Tennessee's second-largest city have violated citizens鈥� constitutional rights and civil rights, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said at a Thursday news conference, describing the lengthy review as 鈥渃omprehensive and exhaustive.鈥�
The police department's practices violate the Constitution and federal law, and 鈥渉arm and demean people and they promote distrust, undermining the fundamental safety mission of a police department,鈥� Clarke said.
The fatal beating of Nichols by officers after he ran away from a January 2023 traffic stop exposed serious problems in police department, from its use of excessive force to its mistreatment of Black people in the majority-Black city, according to the investigation report released Wednesday.
Nichols, who was kicked, punched and beaten with a baton, died three days after his encounter with police. Nichols was Black, as are the former officers involved in his beating. His death led to national protests, raised the volume on in the U.S., and directed intense scrutiny towards the Memphis Police Department, more than half of whose members are Black, including Chief Cerelyn 鈥淐J鈥� Davis.
The federal probe looked at the department鈥檚 鈥減attern or practice鈥� of how it uses force and conducts stops, searches and arrests, and whether it engages in discriminatory policing.
It found that officers would punch, kick and use other force against people who were already handcuffed or restrained, which it described as unconstitutional but which were nearly always approved after the fact by supervisors. Officers resort to force likely to cause pain or injury 鈥渁lmost immediately in response to low-level, nonviolent offenses, even when people are not aggressive,鈥� investigators determined.
鈥淢emphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve,鈥� according to the report.
Memphis officers cite or arrest Black people for loitering or curfew violations at 13 times the rate it does for white people, and cite or arrest Black people for disorderly conduct at 3.6 times the rate of white people, the report said.
showed officers pepper-spraying Nichols and hitting him with a Taser before he ran from a traffic stop. Five officers chased down Nichols just steps from his home as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries.
The officers were fired, charged in state court with murder, and indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges. Two pleaded guilty to federal charges under plea deals. at trial on split verdicts.
Although the report mentions the Nichols case, it also describes others, including one in which officers pepper-sprayed, kicked and fired a Taser at an unarmed man with a mental illness who tried to take a $2 soda from a gas station.
The investigation cited police training that 鈥減rimed officers to believe that force was the most likely way to end an encounter,鈥� rather than talking to a suspect to de-escalate a situation. In one training example, officers were told that, 鈥淚f a fight is unavoidable, hurt them first and hurt them bad.鈥�
In a Wednesday letter to the Justice Department鈥檚 Civil Rights Division, the city attorney said Memphis had received the a DOJ's consent decree request but wouldn't agree to one until it had thoroughly reviewed the report.
A consent decree requires reforms overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge. The federal oversight can continue for years, and violations could result in fines paid by the city.
Other police departments have faced federal investigations in recent years, including Minneapolis' after the killing of , and the police force in Louisville, Kentucky, following the fatal police shooting of .
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Mattise reported from Nashville. Associated Press reporter Kristin M. Hall contributed from Chicago.
Adrian Sainz And Jonathan Mattise, The Associated Press
