Memphis Police Used Excessive Force and Discriminated Against Black Residents, Justice Dept. Finds

The Police Department has been under scrutiny since Tyre Nichols’s death last year. The report noted that children in particular had experienced “aggressive and frightening encounters with officers.”

The Justice Department released the results of its investigation into the Memphis Police Department on Wednesday, finding that it had used excessive force, treated Black people more harshly than white people and mistreated those with mental health issues. The report said that the civil rights violations had a “corrosive effect.”

The 73-page report made special note of the treatment of children, saying that they had experienced “aggressive and frightening encounters with officers.” One 8-year-old boy with behavioral health issues had at least nine encounters with officers from December 2021 to August 2023, the report said, during which he was repeatedly threatened, pushed, handcuffed or thrown.

The Police Department has been under scrutiny since January 2023, when officers fatally beat Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after pulling him over on his way home from work. The body and street camera footage that captured the violence prompted a national outcry and testimony from other residents about the agency’s pattern of excessive force.

The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation, known as a pattern-or-practice inquiry, six months after Mr. Nichols’s death. The investigation is separate from the series of federal and state charges that have been filed against five former Memphis officers in connection with the case.

“The people of Memphis deserve a Police Department and city that protects their civil and constitutional rights, garners trust and keeps them safe,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division said in a statement on Wednesday. She added that the agency was looking forward “to instituting reforms that will address the harms we identified.”