The Memphis Police Department announced on Saturday that it was getting rid of its SCORPION crimefighting unit.
As reported by NBC News, this decision comes in the wake of five Memphis police officers - all members of the SCORPION unit - being fired and charged with murder for the beating death of Tyre Nichols. In addition, it was announced on Monday that a sixth officer had been suspended in connection to the fatal beating. However, he has not been charged with the murder.
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The statement issued by the Memphis Police Department announced that it would "permanently deactivate" SCORPION, which stood for "Street Crime Operations to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods." The statement said the decision was made "in the process of listening intently to the family of Tyre Nichols, community leaders and the uninvolved officers who have done quality work in their assignments."
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, the first Black woman to hold the position, launched the SCORPION unit in November 2021, a few months after taking office. At the time, Memphis was nearing the end of a record year of violent crime, with over 300 murders in the city by year's end. Davis' strategy for targeting violent crime relied heavily on the new unit. In the subsequent months, Davis and other high-ranking officials, including Mayor Jim Strickland, touted the team as a success and cited it as a reason for falling crime numbers in the city in 2022. SCORPION was credited with hundreds of arrests and significant cash, weapons and vehicle seizures.
Even as the city's leaders were singing the praises of SCORPION, community leaders and civilians saw the unit very differently. Community activist Hunter Dempster told The New York Times that SCORPION had become notorious for harassing citizens in poor neighborhoods and engaging in violence. "If you get pulled over, you know that there's potential for violence," Dempster said, referring to SCORPION's history of stopping and harassing motorists.
Although the decision to end SCORPION has been greeted as necessary, critics still see deeper issues within the Memphis Police Department and other police squads. For example, activist Bree Newsome Bass notes that Chief Davis previously ran a similarly notorious team during her time with the Atlanta Police Department and that she initially defended SCORPION even after Nichols' death at the hands of several members of the unit.
Meanwhile, civil rights attorney Scott Hechinger notes that a similar unit in New York City that had been disbanded after Eric Garner's murder has now been reinstated by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
With these controversial units adding to the danger and distrust characterizing police departments across the country, dismantling SCORPION in Memphis may drive a larger conversation about aggressive police tactics throughout the country. Though deemed necessary by various activists and community leaders, getting rid of these units will only be one step in tackling the more significant issues of police violence across the United States.
