Tennessee senator wants former NYPD commissioner’s help tackling Memphis crime

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – Can the former top cop who dramatically reduced crime in New York City in the 1990s help make Memphis a safer city?  State Senator Brent Taylor wants former New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton to tackle the Bluff City’s crime problem.

Under former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Bratton’s tough-on-crime approach reduced crime in the Big Apple by double digits in the first year.

Bratton is now executive chairman of Risk Advisory at Teneo, a global consulting firm that Sen. Taylor thinks the state should hire to help Memphis fix its crime problem.

“We have to do something immediately,” Taylor told Action News 5, “and the best way to do that is with crime suppression, with our police arresting people, and with our DA hopefully prosecuting people, getting convictions and getting people incarcerated.”

Taylor sent a letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday, May 28, requesting a meeting to talk about the state hiring a consultant who can create a crime reduction strategy for Memphis.

“If we don’t get a handle on the crime problem,” said Taylor, “we’re going to wind up being the new Detroit, which is the example of a failed American city.”

Sen. Taylor said Bratton’s experience in reducing crime is what Memphis needs right now. NYPD’s “Broken Windows” approach, making arrests for small crimes, worked, but not without controversy.

State Senator London Lamar called the department’s “stop and frisk” policy inhumane and unfair to Black and brown citizens.

”I am feeling the challenges around public safety just as much as you are, I get it,” she told Action News 5. “It is of urgency that we get this under control, but that doesn’t mean we need to implement policies that will do more harm than good.”

Sen. Taylor’s letter said the state should avoid working with criminal justice reform groups like Just City, Decarcerate Memphis, Vera Institute of Justice and Justice Innovation Lab.

“They are about defunding the police,” said Taylor, “decarceration, and they are about cashless bail, and I think they are part of the problem.”

In a statement, Just City Executive Director Josh Spickler told Action News 5:

“Sen. Brent Taylor’s latest letter again misrepresents the work of Just City and those doing the most to interrupt cycles of injustice and harm in our state. His proposals are unserious and would do nothing to address crime in our city. Instead of exploring legitimate policy solutions, Taylor continues to make boogeymen of advocates like us in order to score political points.

Just City values safety and justice for everyone, and we will not be defined or deterred by Sen. Taylor’s latest letter-writing stunt. We will continue to work tirelessly to make our city safer and more fair for everyone, as we have for the past nine years.”

And the Vera Institute of Justice provided the following statement:

“Vera Institute was invited to Memphis by local organizations, like Decarcerate Memphis, that are led by directly-impacted people. Victims, community members, and advocates overwhelmingly want alternatives to incarceration. While police are an important part of keeping Memphis safe, they are not the only solution. Restorative justice is a solution that people want; by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, research shows that victims prefer the criminal legal system to focus more on rehabilitating people who commit crimes than punishing them. When Memphis city council passed the Tyre Nichols Act reprioritizing traffic stops to keep people safer and build community trust with police, state officials responded by passing legislation attempting to reverse it. Vera will continue to collaborate with local governments and support community demands for policies and practices that truly keep people safe.”

In 2013, a federal judge found the manner in which NYPD carried out “stop and frisk” was unconstitutional.

Sen. Lamar said she does agree with Bratton on several issues: He’s against arming teachers with guns, he supports bans on assault weapons and champions tougher gun laws.

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