MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The White House just announced its working with 21 communities, vowing to improve transparency and police issues in their communities.
Memphis however was not on the list.
Mayor A C Wharton told WREG he was aware of the push and was “going to try” to get Memphis included.
“Those are the first cities, but we do support that,” Wharton said.
The White House planned to launch a new Police Data Initiative (PDI).
It pledged to help the communities who signed on by figuring out the best practices for law enforcement when it comes to data, technology, and improving community trust.
Some of the cities include Atlanta, New Orleans, Louisville, and Camden, New Jersey.
WREG visited Camden several months ago and reported on its efforts to fight crime.
At that time, Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson spoke about how some types of zero tolerance policing does not work in the long term.
“You’ll get temporary lulls in crime, but you’ll never build anything that can move forward and be sustainable for reducing crime over the long haul,” Thomson said.
Over the span of two years, Camden’s murder rate dropped 56%.
Violent crime in general dropped 22%.
Camden Officials said it got there by forming a County Police Department where the numbers of officers were doubled.
The department installed GPS and dash cameras in every squad car, and made an effort to get officers on the streets building relationships and not just arresting people.
“We are fully in accord with the president’s transparency initiative,” Wharton said.
Wharton reminded WREG the Memphis Police Department would start getting body cameras, dash cameras and GPS September 1 of this year.
“We’re working right now to make sure that there’s transparency in what is captured by the cameras, and that’s going to be the biggest challenge,” Wharton said.
New City of Memphis CAO Jack Sammons was also interested in looking deeper into these issues.
Sammons told WREG he planned to visit Camden, New Jersey next time he visits New York.
“I plan to build a team of interns,” he wrote over a text message. “I will assign one of them to learn more about Camden and its similarity to MEM.”
MPD has not yet issued a statement on this matter.
Here are the jurisdictions taking part in PDI:
Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Camden, NJ
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
Cincinnati, OH
Columbia. SC
Dallas, TX
Hampton, VA
Indianapolis, IN
Knoxville, TN
Los Angeles, CA
LA County, CA
Louisville, KY
Montgomery County, MD
New Orleans, LA
Newport News, VA
Oakland, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Richmond, CA
Rutland, VT
Seattle, WA