MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis police made it very clear this week to the City Council that their presence will be known throughout the city. The department is currently being aggressive in areas where police and citizens see a lot of reckless driving.
That means they are giving tickets and in most cases making arrests for drag racing, speeding, large gatherings in parking lots and gas stations, and for expired missing or fake license plates.
MPD has increased enforcement on drag racing and reckless driving over the years, but they want the public to know despite staffing issues, MPD does have the time to enforce traffic violations.
So far this year, they have arrested and charged 112 people for reckless driving and charged 14 people for drag racing. MPD Chief CJ Davis told the City Council Tuesday, if they continue with this trend, they will make more than eleven hundred arrests for reckless driving and more than 140 arrests for drag racing by the end of the year.
"People will see that Memphis is a place where there are consequences for illegal drag racing, speeding, and so on and the excuse that we don’t pursue — that’s not an excuse because our officers can do regular traffic stops and curtail some of the problems we have," Davis said.
Council members said Memphians are constantly losing their lives when they leave their house because of reckless driving and want change now, but issuing more tickets and arresting more people is a double-edged sword because buckling down on reckless driving can cause more police pursuits which can lead to more accidents.
MPD made nearly 900 arrests last year between drag racing and reckless driving, and they plan to make more than 1,100 this year. While that seems like a move in the right direction, a concern with more arrests means more police chases.
Last year there were 134 pursuits by police and of those, there were 57 accidents including either with police, the suspect, or bystanders. The department didn't have a breakdown if those accidents resulted in deaths or injuries. But, the data did show they had 46% more accidents in 2021 compared to the years before.
Davis presented other initiatives to council members this week. She said she would like to use camera technology in place of some police chasing.
She said she is currently testing drones and a camera that marks vehicles that are evading police, so if they get away the camera will be able to locate them later without a chase.
Manpower is also the reason why they are unable to stop reckless driving as efficiently as they would like. Davis said she wants to staff the real-time crime center. If it was fully staffed, it would have people monitoring cameras throughout the city in real-time.