MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – They’re working out a compromise on the residency requirement for Memphis City Police and Firefighters. It’s a compromise Mayor Jim Strickland says he can live with. Just ask him.
“We encouraged the compromise,” he says, “because any expansion even for a limited amount of time would help.”
The Memphis City Council has just been bashing the ever-loving gravy out of the original idea. The plan was to let folks vote on whether it would be ok to let cops and firefighters live within two hours of the city. They battled over this so much it left Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings frustrated.
“I just hope we can come to some resolution.” he said at the end of one council meeting.”
The first plan would allow officers and firefighters to live within two hours of the city.
The compromise plan would allow them to live within fifty miles of the city, but it would go into effect only when there was a critical staffing need.
And there are some council members who say police should live in the city, should live in the areas they work.
Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, who is against any residency requirement, says that just doesn’t make any sense.
“Even if they lived in the City of Memphis,” Williams said, “they’re not going to live in South Memphis, or North Memphis. They’re not going to live in high crime areas. They’ll gravitate to other areas they know, or where they can relate to people.”
All of this is happening because the city needs more police officers.It is a crisis in recruiting Director Rallings says, and it’s a crisis happening all over the country.
The trouble is, at least for Memphis, there are already three residency restrictions.
One group of officers can live where they want, another group has to live in the city, and then another group can live in Shelby County.
“I’m covered under the old system,” Mike Williams says. “I can live up to two hours away, yet I choose to live in the city of Memphis.”
The council could vote for this to go on next year’s ballot during their final meeting of this year.