MEMPHIS, Tennessee —
Pastor Devante Hill, activist Frank Gottie, and dozens of clergy members have been meeting for two weeks now with Mayor Strickland's office about a plan for immediate change. Reform of Memphis Police Department (MPD) procedures and the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) are at the forefront of their conversations.
"One of the most important things we talked about was the structural adjustments that need to be made for CLERB so we can breed more accountability within our police department," Hill said.
Hill explained strengthening and diversifying CLERB will help fix systemic issues within MPD. Defunding the police has been one controversial topic in the spotlight lately.
"I think defunding the police officers is a phase," Hill said. "I think we all would hope to get to where we don’t need such a strong police department."
He said what we can do now is work to restructure laws and police policies.
"Systemic racism has been a huge problem here in the city of Memphis, and I believe that crime has a lot to do with the systemic racism here in Memphis as well," Hill said.
While making changes to MPD is a top priority, Hill said we need to strengthen other aspects of our city, too.
"I believe once we start among these systemic changes to our judicial system, the systemic changes in our educational system, the systemic changes in our economical structure here in the city of Memphis, I believe crime rates are going to go down," Hill said.
Hill said MPD is working on instituting implicit bias training for all its members right now. These closed-door meetings are expected to last at least another two weeks.