MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The city of Memphis says it’s being more transparent with internal investigations of police officers with a new online tool released Thursday.
The online dashboard includes information like excessive force and body camera allegations, a breakdown of the demographics of officers and people involved, how many times an officer fired a gun and details of the few cases where an officer got in trouble for excessive or unnecessary force.
“We looked at some data portals all over the United States, and this is by far one of the best,” Police Director Michael Rallings said. “We wanted it to be easy to use.”
The dashboard can be found at https://reimagine.memphistn.gov/isb-dashboard/
Annual reports from the Inspectional Services Bureau, which investigates police complaints, and information on some individual cases is available. The most recent data is from 2019. The city said it will be updated quarterly.
In 2019, according to an MPD report, the ISB reviewed 656 complaints, and reported 428 total disciplinary actions.
When a complaint is filed, MPD investigates it internally and determines whether the officer was in the wrong.
The case is then filed away, and unless you file an open records request, you may never know about it.
The price tag attached to that request can be pricey, because MPD may have to dig through files to find paperwork and then redact information based on law.
That’s why City Councilman JB Smiley drafted a resolution this summer to put pressure on the mayor’s administration and mpd to create a portal.
“If we truly want to get to the position where there is true trust between the community and the individuals who are sworn to protect the community, we have to make ourselves as transparent as possible,” he said.
Smiley says this portal is a step in the right direction and will be asking the public what needs to be added.
WREG has been working with the Daily Memphian and the University of Memphis Institute of Public Service Reporting to uncover incidents of excessive force and help find solutions.
One of those cases we uncovered shows a man stunned repeatedly while on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back. It happened in 2016, but we didn’t find out about until last fall.
Because internal investigators found the officer in the wrong, it’s now one of the cases on the new portal.
WREG learned the incident was never turned over to the DA’s office to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing, but in the future, cases like it will be.
MPD also released a new policy Thursday, stating any internal case of excessive or unnecessary force that resulted in discipline or corrective action.. will be sent to the district attorney’s office for review. Before today, it was left up to the DA to ask for those cases or the department to make that call.