Memphis says it won't agree to federal oversight of police department ahead of investigation report

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis will not agree to negotiate federal oversight of its police department until it can review and challenge results of a yet-to-be-released Department of Justice investigation into how its officers use force and treat minorities, according to a letter released by the city on Wednesday.

In the letter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Memphis City Attorney Tannera George Gibson said the city has received a request from the DOJ to enter into an agreement that would require it to “negotiate a consent decree aimed at institutional police and emergency services.”

In July 2023, the Justice Department announced an investigation into the Memphis Police Department, looking at the department’s “pattern or practice” of how it uses force and conducts stops, searches and arrests, and whether it engages in discriminatory policing. The findings of the investigation, which was announced six months after the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols by police, have not been released.

A consent decree is an agreement requiring reforms th...
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