MEMPHIS, Tenn. — With the release of the disciplinary records Wednesday of the former Memphis Police officers charged in Tyre Nichols' death, people are asking why officers with checkered pasts were hired in the first place and what can be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
In 2022, the Memphis Police Department changed its hiring standards in an effort to boost recruitment. This included reducing the required education and work experience and using the option to seek waivers to hire applicants with criminal records.
“(Interim Police Chief C.J. Davis) was brought in under the auspices of trying to increase the number of police officers, I would argue almost by any means necessary, and to stop and fight violent crime almost by any means necessary,” said Memphis pastor and activist Dr. Earle Fisher.
Dr. Fisher believes that has led to the situation within MPD that ultimately contributed to Nichols’ death. He argues there needs to be a reevaluation of how MPD selects candidates.
According to the documents, three former members of the disbanded MPD SCORPION Unit connected to Nichols’ arrest (Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley and retired Lt. Dewayne Smith) have faced accusations of violent confrontations.
“(People in charge) quite possibly could have recruited them to kind of exercise some of that brute and illegal force and excessive force that we have seen,” Dr. Fisher said.
In 2023, former Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said one problem is the lack of quality veteran officers within MPD.
“You cannot turn five or six two-to-three-year officers loose in the street and expect positive results,” Armstrong said, referring to the SCORPION Unit.
Dr. Fisher said it is past time for a plan forward.
“What I think the community is entitled to at this point is a comprehensive plan that the public needs to see,” he said. “And I think we've been waiting far too long for that.”
ABC24 reached out to the Memphis Police Department to ask about what changes have been made to policy and what others are planned going forward. They said they could not comment on on-going litigation, even though the question was about policy.