Last October, it was announced that the Department of Justice would review the Memphis Police Department:
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Police Director Michael Rallings invited the COPS program to Memphis "for a collaborative review of both community-oriented policing and the use of deadly force," city spokeswoman Ursula Madden said.
"We haven't yet signed an agreement, but we do expect a formal announcement in partnership with the DOJ tomorrow," she said.
U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III mentioned a reform initiative in September at an announcement that a federal review of the fatal shooting of Darrius Stewart concluded with insufficient evidence to support charges against former Memphis police Officer Connor Schilling.
Something has changed:
The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it has ended its federal review process of the Memphis Police Department.
“The Department of Justice’s COPS Office will no longer proceed with the collaborative reform process with the City of Memphis and Memphis Police Department,'' Justice Department officials said in a news release Friday morning.
In case anyone is wondering:
It is not known why the review process was halted.
The answer might be that something has changed:
Newly minted Attorney General Jeff Sessions questioned reports published by his agency about policing in Chicago and Ferguson, Missouri, describing "some of it" as "pretty anecdotal and not so scientifically based."
While admitting that he had not read the reports, but instead viewed summaries, Sessions questioned the department's findings using the "anecdotal" critique and cautioned that there will always be some mistakes.
"You have 800,000 police in America, imagine a city of 800,000 people," said Sessions. "There's going to be some crime in it, some people are going to make errors."
Mistakes will be made. People will be killed. Particularly certain types of people. Nothing to see here. Move along.