Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy is pushing back against the Memphis Police Department’s effort to stop the chaos happening downtown.
The department’s “crime abatement program” recently came under fire after a leaked document detailed a list of disturbances officers would keep an eye on.
“We don’t need to be focusing on things like whether there are young people downtown who are handing out flyers or ‘dressed inappropriately’ or dancing in the street. Right? That’s clearly not something that we ought to be doing,” Mulroy said during a press conference.CLICK HERE to join KWAM’s “Stop Memphis Crime” page. Follow our army of citizen journalists as they report crime news across the city.
Police Chief CJ Davis said the leaked document was incomplete and taken out of context.
The program has since been paused.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner told KWAM he was disappointed in the decision to halt the crime-fighting unit.“I was concerned to see MPD stop a much-needed program to reduce juvenile crime and, quite honestly, disappointed that the Downtown Commission doesn’t see the critical need to keep our kids away from late-night entertainment districts. We must protect our citizens and the tourists coming to Memphis during the travel season, and I strongly encourage MPD to move forward with a solid plan to protect our community,” Bonnor said.
