Tyre Nichols’ death and police reform: How toughness became brutality

Not so long ago, it looked as though Memphis might be on to something. A reformist chief had taken the reins of the police department, and a crime spike seemed to be subsiding. In his State of the City speech, Memphis’ Democratic mayor hailed the achievements of a new crime unit.

On Saturday, the unit was disbanded. A video showed five of the unit’s officers beating Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old motorist, so badly that he died from his injuries three days later.

The idea of units that police hot spots is not all bad. Studies have found that targeted units can work. The issue is accountability. “These kinds of units, because of their nature and autonomy that they’re given, they have a propensity to violate citizens’ constitutional rights,” says David Thomas, an expert at Florida Gulf Coast University.

“There needs to be strict oversight, and the edict should be quality over quantity,” he adds.

In Memphis, citizens have mostly applauded the police chief’s decision to shut down the unit. They want safety, but not at the cost of inhumanity. Says one resident, “People will only have the boot on their neck for so long until they strike back.”

SCORPION hit the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, in late 2021 in unmarked cars, some without standard-issue dashboard cameras.

The police crime-suppression unit, divided into four, 10-person teams, racked up hundreds of arrests in months. It targeted suspected drug dens, gun smugglers, and reckless drivers who had grown brash during the pandemic.

SCORPION’s sting was effective, city leaders said. The acronym stands for Street Crimes Operation To Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, and by late last year, the crime wave had begun to subside. Democratic Mayor Jim Strickland hailed its achievements in his 2022 State of the City speech. In a city where leaders had embraced post-George Floyd police reforms, the changes seemed significant. Was Memphis on to something?

On Saturday, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis permanently disbanded SCORPION. Hours earlier, the United States watched in horror as a video released by the city showed five of the unit’s officers beating Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old motorist, so badly that he died from his injuries three days later.

The demise of SCORPION shows a chief and a city trying to find a balance between addressing serious crime and reforming how U.S. policing is done. It comes as nationwide police reforms in the wake of Mr. Floyd’s 2020 murder by a Minneapolis officer collide with a wave of rising crime that began during the pandemic. And Memphis is a microcosm of how America is struggling to find aggressive, effective policing that doesn’t tip into brutality.