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Memphis committee recommends replacing police chief, 1 year after Tyre Nichols death
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis speaks to the city council as Mayor Paul Young stands behind her at city hall on Tuesday.
Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP
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Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis speaks to the city council as Mayor Paul Young stands behind her at city hall on Tuesday.
Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal via AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis City Council committee voted Tuesday to replace police chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis a year after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by five officers generated intense criticism of her department and led to a federal investigation into how it fights crime.
The council’s executive committee, which includes all of the council’s 13 members, recommended by a 7 -6 vote to reject the reappointment of Davis. The council will vote later on a binding vote on the fate of Davis, who was hired by the city in 2021.
The new mayor — Paul Young, who took office Jan. 1 after he was elected in November — had sought the reappointment of Davis, saying he firmly believed she was the right person for the job but that he would make a change if she did not produce the results the city needs. Davis was appointed by previous Mayor Jim Strickland, who left office due to term limits.
Davis was in charge of the department when Nichols, who was Black, was hit with a stun gun, pepper sprayed, punched and kicked by officers after a traffic stop. The officers were part of a crime-suppression team called the Scorpion unit, which was established in 2021, after Davis took over as Memphis Police Director.
Nichols died on Jan. 10, 2023 — three days after the beating — and camera footage of it was released publicly. The beating was part of a series of cases of police brutality against Black people that sparked protests and renewed debate the need for police reform in the U.S.
In all, seven officers were fired for violating department policies, resulting in Nichols’ death, while an eighth was allowed to retire before he could be fired.
Five of the fired officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were charged with second-degree murder and other offenses in state court, and with civil rights violations in federal court. The five officers are Black.
Mills pleaded guilty in November to federal charges of excessive force and obstruction of justice. The plea is part of a larger deal in which prosecutors said he had also agreed to plead guilty later to state charges. The four other officers have pleaded not guilty to the state and federal charges.
The officers said they pulled Nichols over because he was driving recklessly, but Davis, the police director, has said no evidence was found to support that allegation.
Davis disbanded the Scorpion unit after the beating, and was initially praised for quickly firing the officers. But Nichols’ death shined a bright light on the department and Davis, and calls for her ouster increased among activists and citizens frustrated with an increase in overall crime — which includes a city-record 398 homicides and a jump in auto burglaries to more than 14,000 last year.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation in July into how Memphis police officers use force and conduct arrests, one of several “patterns and practices” investigations it has undertaken in other cities. The probe is looking at how officers use force and conduct arrests, and answers long-standing calls for such an investigation from critics of the way police treat minorities in majority-Black Memphis.
In March, the Justice Department said it was conducting a separate review concerning use of force, de-escalation strategies and specialized units in the police department.
Davis, the city and the former officers are also being sued by Nichols’ mother in federal court. Filed in April, the $550 million lawsuit blames them for his death and accuses Davis of allowing the Scorpion unit’s aggressive tactics to go unchecked despite warning signs.
The committee meeting was contentious at times, with council members questioning Davis about her record and whether her officers support her. A group of uniformed police officers sat in the audience in support of their boss. Some audience members held signs saying “We support chief Davis,” while others had signs saying “No on chief Davis.”
Davis made a presentation that detailed accomplishments during her tenure, including hiring more than 400 officers and expanding community-oriented policing. Young also spoke in support of her and the other people he recommended for appointment to city jobs.
But council chair JB Smiley Jr., who voted against Davis’ reappointment, said Memphis “deserves better.”
“Chief Davis had two and a half years,” Smiley said. “That’s ample time to get it right.”
Early on a Tuesday morning last month, the sky still black, a group of deputies from the Laramie County sheriff’s office set out to patrol two major interstates that cross their corner of southeast Wyoming. Over the course of five hours, they made 41 traffic stops, issued 12 citations, made two criminal arrests and — through a new partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — detained seven immigrants.
One person was asleep in the backseat of a silver pickup truck stopped for a too-dim rear license plate light. Two passengers in a minivan that had been going 12 miles per hour over the limit were also taken into custody. Four others were detained after their pickup, too, was stopped for speeding.
All were booked into the county jail to await transfer to an ICE detention facility. The deputies working the immigration operation earned a combined $1,325 in overtime courtesy of the federal government.
The Trump administration has enlisted hundreds of state and local law enforcement agencies in its mass deportation campaign by deputizing their officers as immigration agents, extending ICE’s reach far beyond where the agency typically operates.
Living in the United States without authorization is a civil violation, not a criminal offense, and local police officers have no responsibility to enforce federal immigration law. But after completing a 40-hour virtual training, certified officers can inquire about the immigration status of people they encounter in the course of routine police work; call ICE if they suspect a person is undocumented; and, if given the go-ahead, take immigrants into custody.
Agencies that have signed agreements to participate in the federal 287(g) task force program.
Where state and local law enforcement work for ICE
Before President Trump returned to office, the program — named 287(g) for a section of federal immigration law — had largely consisted of agreements with local agencies to identify and process immigrants already held in jails. The Trump administration expanded the cooperation, and for the first time offered cash incentives to agencies to sign up and make arrests.
Participation has exploded, and de facto ICE officers are now on the ground in hundreds of cities and counties across 31 states. Several thousand officers have been credentialed — state troopers, sheriff’s deputies, police officers, constables — on top of the 12,000 new officers and agents that ICE hired last year. The rush to sign up and cash in has included some unusual agencies, too, like Louisiana’s State Fire Marshal and Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Perhaps most significantly, the program has the potential to turn highways and roads into sites of immigration enforcement.
“ICE does not have that generalized patrol authority, so it’s really great for ICE that they can use state and local police in this way,” said Naureen Shah, the director of immigration policy at the American Civil Liberties Union, whose Wyoming office is suing Laramie County over its agreement with ICE.
287(g) partnerships by type of agreement. Agencies may sign more than one agreement with ICE.
Hundreds of law enforcement agencies have joined ICE’s task force
Brian Kozak, the Laramie County sheriff, said the program allows his office to be more efficient and move detainees through his jail more quickly.
“If someone is undocumented, it’s faster for our deputies to book them on an ICE hold and not even do the local charges. Then they don’t have to sit in my jail waiting for those local charges to be adjudicated,” he said, though he added that more serious felony offenses would still be charged.
‘A tremendous asset’
Even though 1,200 local task force partners have signed on, the program is still ramping up. Fewer than 300 participating agencies had both credentialed at least one officer and received a payment for immigration enforcement work as of March, according to a payout ledger obtained by Ken Klippenstein, an independent journalist.
Researchers estimate that the share of people detained through any type of 287(g) program rose to about 10 percent in January, up from about 3 percent a year before. The Department of Homeland Security declined to answer detailed questions about the program or share more recent arrest or payment figures.
“The 287(g) program can be a tremendous asset to you and to the country,” Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, said this week at the National Sheriffs’ Association conference. “If we had the participation of all the county sheriffs that are in this building right now, think how much faster those arrests would move up.”
Over the course of a week in April, Laramie County was among the top arresting agencies in the country, alongside larger state authorities like the Florida Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, according to snapshots of internal ICE data obtained by The New York Times. Together, the top five local partners made 162 immigration arrests that week; over a week in May, the top agencies made around 300 arrests.
Those are modest figures, considering ICE recorded about 7,000 arrests each week nationwide in recent months. The larger goal may be the perception of an ever more widespread immigration enforcement apparatus.
“The arrest numbers sometimes don’t matter to them if the message and rhetoric is strong enough — that any kind of day-to-day activity for an immigrant could lead to deportation,” said Nayna Gupta, the policy director for the American Immigration Council, a legal advocacy group that supports immigrants.
Financial incentives
For the local partners, the program comes with an enticing offer: a one-time payment of $100,000 for new vehicles and $7,500 in equipment funds per certified task force officer. ICE says it will pay the salary and benefits for officers who do immigration work full time, and overtime for up to 25 percent of an officer’s salary.
Agreements are most common in states where Republican leaders back the president’s immigration agenda. Last year, Florida became the first state to require local agencies’ participation in the 287(g) program, followed by Texas this year. Elsewhere, participation is more scattered — and Democratic lawmakers seeking to reign in ICE have succeeded in banning the agreements altogether in 11 states, most recently in New York.
287(g) task force agreements by state.
Local partnerships with ICE are most common in the South
Laramie County now has 30 credentialed task force officers. Since October, they have made 412 immigration arrests and the sheriff’s office has received about $300,000 for its participation.
Larger statewide agencies stand to be paid millions. Then there are the hundreds of smaller agencies with only a few task force officers, like the police department in Colebrook, N.H., which has three.
“It’s a huge thing for a small department like us to get that stipend,” said Chief Paul Rella, who said his department has made two ICE arrests since January and has received around $100,000. “But even if there wasn’t a stipend, we would’ve done it anyway. To be able to have the authority to detain someone that may be here illegally, it all comes down to community safety.”
Immigrant rights groups and critics of the program say it has the opposite effect: As more police officers work for ICE, immigrants may be discouraged from reporting crimes or avoid contact with local law enforcement for fear of deportation.
“It’s a balancing act,” acknowledged Benjamin Cox, the police chief in Duncan, S.C., a town of about 5,000 with two task force officers. “I need the people in our town, no matter their immigration status, to feel comfortable calling me. That’s the most challenging part of 287(g).”
Opponents of the program also say that it can lead to racial profiling. In 2011 and 2012, the Justice Department found that participating agencies in Arizona and North Carolina had engaged in patterns of discriminatory policing, leading the Obama administration to discontinue the task force program.
Sheriff Kozak is familiar with those risks. He worked as a police officer for 20 years in Mesa, Ariz., when Sheriff Joe Arpaio set up random checkpoints and neighborhood sweeps that targeted Latinos, and he said he saw firsthand that the sheriff was “crossing the line.”
“Our policy requires lawful contact following a violation of state law,” he said. “We’re focused on traffic enforcement and traffic safety, and then a side thing is the immigration.”
A D.H.S. spokesperson said accusations that 287(g) agreements encourage racial profiling are false and that ICE’s local partners fairly enforce immigration law.
From commute to detention
By late morning, the Laramie County deputies were preparing to head back to the jail when they stopped the speeding minivan. Four workers with a drywall company headed to a job site were inside. The driver and front-seat passenger had valid identification but told the deputies that the other passengers did not.
“We don’t typically ask other passengers unless there’s a reason, but nothing says you can’t ask” for identification, Chance Walkama, a chief deputy, explained. “That’s how things happen all the time.” Passengers who have not broken a law may decline to speak with the police, but many immigrants are unaware of this right.
Mr. Walkama texted the passengers’ information to his contact at the local ICE field office in Cheyenne. The ICE agent wrote back that one of their names matched someone with a criminal history and the same date of birth. After a few more questions, Mr. Walkama handcuffed the man, Christian Rodriguez, and loaded him into the deputies’ car.
He is now being held at an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colo. “I don’t understand. I wasn’t driving, I had my seatbelt on,” Mr. Rodriguez said by phone from detention. “It’s not fair.”
Mr. Rodriguez, 29, arrived with his parents from Mexico as a minor and was about two years into the years-long process of applying for a green card. He is married to a U.S. citizen and has six children and step-children who are all U.S. citizens. He has no criminal convictions, records show; charges stemming from a domestic dispute with his ex-wife in 2020 were dropped.
Asked whether Mr. Rodriguez’s arrest reflected the purpose of Laramie County’s partnership with ICE, another chief deputy, Aaron Veldheer, said, “It weighs on me” — that a person who was riding in a car on his way to work is now separated from his family.
“Not that I wish somebody got hurt or there was a crime committed, but, yeah, it’s collateral,” Mr. Veldheer said. “But it’s part of the job. We can’t look the other way, either.”
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Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; JC Olivera/Getty Images for the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars Campaign
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Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; JC Olivera/Getty Images for the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars Campaign
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