MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams calls the video showing George Floyd’s death the worst thing he’s seen outside being in active combat.
“I’m a black man. I didn’t like what I saw on TV. I thought it was inhumane. I thought it was egregious,” he said.
Williams is one of many officers caught between two worlds right now.
“I’ve marched for civil rights so I understand what the issue is,” he said, “however I also, as a police officer, have to maintain the law.”
The Memphis Police Association President as well as the Memphis Police Director say officers are doing their best during tense times.
“Because of things happening across the country, we assume they’re happening in Memphis. And a lot of times they’re not,” Williams said.
“Our officers in Memphis make 60,000 arrests a year,” Rallings said. “Those arrests only result in probably less than 2 percent of any force being used.”
But those cases have happened, like in 2018, when police pursued Martavious Banks over a traffic stop and then shot him in the back. Their body cameras were not on, in violation of department policy.
Most of the officers kept their jobs.
WREG asked these leaders what incidents like these do to trust and what they’re doing about it.
“We do a lot of things in this community. That’s something since I’ve been here that I’ve said, we have to have a vested interest in the community. Because I’m from Memphis,” Williams said.
“I cannot deny there is a trust issue. We work hard to build trust,” Rallings said.
But when WREG asked Rallings more about how to built trust, he put the responsibility back on the people, saying they should have filled out a 2017 survey about use of force.
“There is no one more accountable on the police department than I am,” he said.
But his department still has not responded to WREG’s repeated inquiries about treatment of suspects stemming from multiple incidents at protests last Friday.