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March 2023 Blues Vol 39 No. 3

  • Text
  • Police
  • Rex evans
  • Michael barron
  • Pepperball
  • Non lethal
  • Less than lethal
  • Memphis police
  • Scorpion
  • Worlds largest police magazine
  • Largest police magazine in us
  • Police magazine
  • Police news
  • Blues police magazine
  • Wwwbluespdmagcom
  • Blues
48 SCORPION STREET CRIME UNITS • FULTON COUNTY SCORPION - DOES IT RIGHT • MEMPHIS UNIT SHUT DOWN AND FIVE OFFICERS INDICTED 60 ALTERNATIVES TO LETHAL FORCE DEPARTMENTS 6 PUBLISHER’S THOUGHTS 8 EDITOR’S THOUGHTS 12 GUEST COMMENTARY lEONARD A. SIPES 16 NEWS AROUND THE US 68 CALENDAR OF EVENTS 70 REMEMBERING OUR FALLEN HEROES 80 WAR STORIES 84 AFTERMATH 90 HEALING OUR HEROES 92 DARYL’S DELIBERATIONS 94 LIGHT BULB AWARD 96 RUNNING 4 HEROES 98 BLUE MENTAL HEALTH DR. 100 ADS BACK IN THE DAY 104 PARTING SHOTS 106 BUYERS GUIDE 126 NOW HIRING 192 BACK PAGE

. STREET CRIMES UNITS

. STREET CRIMES UNITS Not Even Close. department. But some of those officers complained about the quality of officers being hired by the department, especially some being assigned to the new unit. Boosting staffing was a major goal of Davis when she took over in June 2021, with her department announcing it was aiming to increase staff from 2,100 to 2,500, close to the size of the force a decade ago. Instead, the police ranks have dropped to 1,939 officers and like the city, the majority of which were Black. A big part of the reason for the dwindling ranks was more than 1,350 officers had either resigned or retired over the past decade — more than 300 in the last two years alone. In an interview with AP last month, Davis said a lack of supervisors was a particular concern, noting that 125 new supervisor slots have been approved by the city but still had not filled. LITTLE TO NO TRAINING & NO SUPERVISION On the night Nichols was killed, not a single supervisor showed up until AFTER Nichols had been transported to the hospital. According to one officer, supervisors rarely if ever, checked in on the unit doing “street runs.” “You were on your own and they pretty much had your back. Officers in the unit knew that they could pretty much “kick ass and take names” all night and as long as the crime numbers went down, they didn’t have to answer to anyone. When asked what training this unit received, a former Memphis officer told CBS news, the SCOR- PION unit’s training consisted of three days of PowerPoint presentations, one day of suspect apprehension training and one day at the firing range. That was it. At least two, out of the five officers charged in Nichol’s death, had joined the department after they relaxed the hiring requirements. Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley, both joined the department in August of 2020, more than two years after Memphis dramatically loosened the education qualifications to become an officer. Recruits no longer needed an associate degree or 54 college credit hours to join the department and could get by with five years of work PRESTON HEMPHILL A sixth Memphis officer Preston Hemphill, was fired after an internal police investigation showed he violated multiple department policies. 54 The BLUES The BLUES 55

The BLUES - Digital Issues 2020-2023

Police Rex evans Michael barron Pepperball Non lethal Less than lethal Memphis police Scorpion Worlds largest police magazine Largest police magazine in us Police magazine Police news Blues police magazine Wwwbluespdmagcom Blues

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