Tag: Memphis Police Department

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News The Fly-By

Playback Memphis Brings Together Police and Felons

Felons and police officers may seem like especially strange bedfellows, but a Memphis theater troupe has built a bridge between some who enforce the law and some who have broken it.

And now those groups are planning to join together to help kids in Frayser stay out of trouble.

Last fall, Playback Memphis, an improv troupe that uses theater to promote healing and reconciliation, paired a group of five Memphis police officers with six ex-offenders from LifeLine to Success, a ministry that helps felons turn their lives around and re-enter society.

Memphis Police Officer Joy Knowlton (center) acts out a personal story with fellow officers and ex-offenders from LifeLine to Success.

“In the Playback method, someone shares a reflection or observation or personal story. We have a team of actors and a musician, and we bring those stories to life on the spot using music and metaphor,” said Playback Memphis Director Virginia Murphy.

The group met for 10 weeks and shared personal stories from their lives. Playback Memphis members taught the participants how to use improv to act out those stories.

“We listened to ex-offenders tell stories of their childhoods, about growing up in difficult situations. And a lot of the officers had those very same stories, including myself, growing up in a home with domestic violence,” said Memphis Police Officer Joy Knowlton. “The only difference between us is some of us turned right and some of us turned left.”

In the end, friendships were formed, and any distrust between the two groups faded away.

“Our clients found a way to express themselves that they didn’t even know existed. It allowed them to remove a lot of stress and reveal some their experiences,” said LifeLine to Success Executive Director DeAndre Brown. “Doing that with police officers made it even better. We had those people who used to run from police, and to be able to meet with them every week on purpose was a big deal.”

The group of police officers and felons acted out some of their stories for the public in a performance in early December. But the work didn’t stop there. Murphy’s goal, in getting the two unlikely allies together, was to get them to assist in Playback’s plan to work with troubled youth in Frayser.

“We wanted to do a project where police and ex-offenders could come together, and if you could break down barriers and bring some healing and transformation between those two groups who we typically don’t think of as having harmonious relationships, they can go out and have an impact on young people,” Murphy said. “They will have a reach Playback wouldn’t have on its own.”

Playback runs an anti-bullying program called Be the Peace in area schools. And they hope to establish it in the Achievement School District in Frayser soon. When they do, the police officers and ex-offenders who participated in the fall session will join them in that work.

“We want to take the Playback model into the schools in our neighborhood to help children use conflict resolution skills,” Brown said. “We have identified a Frayser Success Zone around the elementary school across the street and the high school across the street.”

In addition to helping Frayser kids, Knowlton said she hopes the Playback model may eventually expand within the police department.

“This needs to be an experience for every officer. I would like to see the [Memphis police] training academy give officers a chance to see Playback to help officers touch back with their roots and remember why they chose this career,” Knowlton said. “For me, [Playback offered] a reminder of why I chose to be a police officer and give back to the community.”

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News The Fly-By

TV One Revisits Mistress Murder By MPD officer

On the morning of September 9, 2008, Casandra Malone watched as reporters announced Memphis’ latest homicide. An unidentified woman had been found fatally shot inside a blue Chevrolet Impala at an East Memphis gas station.

She never thought the woman would turn out to be her older sister, Phyllis Malone. She did, however, feel uncomfortable about Chancy Jones, the man her sister was dating before her death.

Chancy Jones

“I only saw him one time,” Casandra said. “When he shook my hand, I felt a cold chill go across my body. I said, ‘Something isn’t right about him.'”

A fatal fling between Jones and Phyllis was profiled in “Law and Murder,” Monday night’s episode of TV One’s docu-series Fatal Attraction. Marathon encore episodes of Fatal Attraction can be viewed Mondays from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.

The night before her body was found, Phyllis met up with Jones, a three-year veteran of the Memphis Police Department at the time. He arranged for them to meet at a Whitten Road Shell gas station.

According to a court document, an argument ensued between the two about Phyllis’ alleged pregnancy and need for money. Jones wanted her to get an abortion but was reportedly unsure about funding it. Phyllis threatened to tell his wife about their affair.

When Phyllis, 31, said, “Bye, Chancy” and began to leave, Jones (37 at the time) shot her three times with a .38-caliber revolver, according to the document. A medical examination revealed that shots to the right side of her head and chest killed her. An autopsy revealed she wasn’t pregnant.

During his trial, Jones recanted his initial statement that he shot Phyllis after she threatened to tell his wife of their extramarital affair. Instead, he said he shot her after she threatened to run him over and revved her engine.

“According to the crime scene and the direction of the bullets, there wasn’t much verification for that story,” said state prosecutor Missy Branham.

Following the murder, Jones reportedly took Phyllis’ cell phone and threw it into the Mississippi River, along with his revolver.

The next day, he reported to work and was later questioned by investigators. During the interrogation, he admitted to murdering Phyllis and was arrested.

In 2010, Jones was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 24 years in prison without parole.

Branham pushed for a first-degree murder charge but was unsuccessful in proving Jones acted out of premeditation.

“He set up this meeting, and he went there to talk to her armed with a weapon,” Branham said. “And he seemed to have had her blocked in to where she couldn’t go anywhere. To me, that was premeditation. I do think he did knowingly and intentionally kill her to get rid of a potential scandal against him and his family.”

Jones, a father and husband, met Phyllis during a response to a domestic dispute call in July 2008. The two exchanged numbers and developed an intimate friendship before things turned fatal.

Phyllis was a mother of five. Her sister, Samantha, said her absence has had a profound impact on her children and family.

Samantha said she still misses the way Phyllis made her laugh.

“She was so funny,” Samantha reminisced. “I loved my sister. When you take somebody like that with five children and sisters and brothers and a father and mother that loved her, too. … She was a good person. She had a good heart. She loved her family.”

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Memphis Homicide Rate Increases in 2014

New Memphis Police Department data has revealed that 168 homicides occurred in 2014. This is 18 more than 2013’s amount of 150.

Only 24 of last year’s homicides were categorized as justifiable. Another 144 were concluded to have been committed with criminal intent.

According to MPD data, more than 80 percent of 2014’s homicides were committed with a firearm. Fifty-two reportedly stemmed from an argument that escalated into a physical altercation. And individuals who were acquainted with each other committed 86 of last year’s homicides.

The MPD’s Homicide Bureau was able to clear 77 percent of the homicides that occurred in 2014.

In 2013, Memphis had 150 homicides. Of this amount, 129 were concluded to be criminal and 21 justifiable.

According to the MPD, during the past six years, an average of 147 total homicides occurred in Memphis. In 2010, the city had an unusually low number of 112, the lowest rate since 1971.

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MPD, Jason’s Deli Hosting “Holiday Ham Giveaway”

The Memphis Police Department is collaborating with Jason’s Deli to provide families in need with free hams on Christmas Eve.

Poverty and hunger are both issues Memphis has battled with for years. In 2010, a Food Research Action Center study dubbed Memphis the “hunger capital of the United States.” And this year, a University of Memphis study ranked Memphis as the nation’s poorest major metropolitan area.

Considering the above-mentioned information, the MPD’s C.O.P. Unit, along with Jason’s Deli, will host a “Holiday Ham Giveaway.” The event will take place today at the MPD’s Airways Station (2234 Truitt).

Five hundred hams will be donated to disadvantaged families during the giveaway. The event starts at noon.

“Officers see firsthand how hunger and poverty touch many lives,” said MPD director Toney Armstrong. “This is just one of the countless ways we show those in need that we understand the struggles they face on a daily basis; and we are thankful for the generous donations from Jason’s Deli to help us in this endeavor of giving back to our community.”

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News The Fly-By

Memphis Rape Kit Fight Gets New Ally

Memphis law enforcement got a new national ally last week in its fight to clear the city’s backlog of untested rape kits while leaders here promised survivors they’d keep that fight alive.

Memphis Police Department (MPD) Deputy Chief Jim Harvey said last Thursday that the city still needs about $3.7 million to complete its rape kit testing project. 

The day before that, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced a new, $35 million fund to help cities like Memphis clear their backlogs. That fund will be the largest single donation to help clear the nation’s rape kit backlog, which the Department of Justice says includes more than 400,000 untested kits.  

The announcement from New York City came as a surprise to Memphis leaders even though Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance name-dropped Memphis in his national news conference announcing the fund.      

“What stands in the way of identifying the scope [of the untested rape kit backlog] across the country and then having local law enforcement testing them is, quite simply, money,” Vance said.  

The new funds come from money forfeited from national banks that violated U.S. sanctions in aiding rogue regimes across the world, Vance said, specifically pointing to Libya and Sudan.

Applications for the new funds will br available in the spring, and when they are, Memphis will be at the table, said Doug McGowen, director of the Mayor’s Innovation Delivery Team. Meanwhile, McGowen said the city will “leave no stone unturned” to find the resources to test the city’s rape kits. 

McGowen and Harvey both spoke last week in one of a series of events called “Sexual Assault Survivor Services: A Community Conversation.” 

The open meetings were mandated in an executive order by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton. He said during the meeting last week that rape is “a cancer that has to be wiped out.” He vowed to the small group gathered at First Baptist Church on Broad Avenue that he’d keep the process transparent.   

“If we find more, you’ll hear about them, as embarrassing as that may be,” Wharton said. “Hopefully, we’ve gotten all of them. But if not, and we find more, we’re not going to sweep it under the rug. We’re going to come right out and tell you that we found some more.”

Harvey likened the situation here to the Titanic. The Memphis media has portrayed it as a sinking ship, he said, but “we’ve sent the cameras down, and we’re pulling treasure out of the Titanic.” Clues are the treasures he said will lead his agency to arrest “hard-core criminals,” whose crimes likely go beyond rape.

“These are violent criminals,” he said. “It’s not about sex. It’s about violence.  So, if we can get one of these guys off the street, then we’ve stopped them from committing any number of other crimes.” 

Meanwhile, Congress is sitting on a $51.2 billion spending bill that includes $41 million for “a new community-based sexual assault response reform initiative.” Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) secured $5 million for the sexual assault program that appeared in versions of the bill that got approvals from House and Senate committees.   

The reform program would include funds for testing rape kits but also for the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault crimes, training law enforcement officers, and victim services. The program is intended to improve law enforcement’s response to sexual assault and services to victims.

A budget vote, which includes the rape kit funding, is one of several issues before the lame-duck Congress this week. The government faces another shutdown unless lawmakers can pass a budget or a stop-gap measure by December 11th.

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New Fund Established to Help Test City’s Rape Kits

Testing the thousands of backlogged rape kits that surfaced in Memphis last year is estimated to cost more than $6.5 million, and officials said this month that more than $3.7 million is still needed to reach that goal. 

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) have funded the effort so far through direct support from the Memphis City Council, grants from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and a $750,000 challenge grant from the Plough Foundation that will be issued once the funding gap is closed.

But a curious new source of funds has emerged. A private, anonymous donor gave $10,000 to the effort this month. The anonymous donor parked those funds at the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis (CFGM). In doing so, the donor established the Sexual Assault Resource Fund, which is now open to anyone looking to help clear the rape kit backlog. 

“I think it’s really going to fill the gap,” said Sutton Mora Hayes, vice president of the CFGM. “It will help get additional testing that needs to be done, but it will also help the organizations that work with victims. It will help [the organizations] with training and capacity building.”

Hayes said, for example, the fund could be used to support hiring more victims’ counselors at the Shelby County Rape Crisis Center. Or it could be used, she said, for technical assistance, policy work, training law enforcement, or just processing more rape kits. The final decision on how the funds are used is up to a panel comprised of members from the Cross-Functional Team, which oversees the rape kit testing project.

Funds like this are not unusual to the CFGM, Hayes said. The foundation has worked with the city and county on several projects in the past, including the purchase of the land for the Shelby Farms Greenline. 

In related news, construction is set to begin next month on a new building to store rape kits and all DNA evidence for the MPD and the SCSO. 

Rape kits have been moved over the years from the old MPD headquarters at 128 Adams, to 201 Poplar, and then to the MPD’s property and evidence storage facility in the old International Harvester building. These moves were part of the confusion that led to the rape kit backlog.

The new space will be built at the Harvester location with the capacity to store about 60,000 kits. The facility will be climate-controlled and come with a price tag of about $1 million. Construction is estimated to take about four months.

Progress is being made in the situation with 222 investigations launched since the untested rape kits surfaced in May 2013. But fixing the problem will be anything but quick or cheap in the long run.  

Testing all of the kits could take up to five years, according to a report from the Cross-Functional Team. The one-time glut of cases into the system has created a glut of work for law enforcement and prosecutors. Both will need more employees (and more money to pay them) to conclude the project.

Rape kit backlog by the numbers:

• 12,374 total rape kits discovered 

• 6,722 not yet tested

• Nearly 5,000 of those kits collected before DNA testing existed

• 2,495 now being tested, majority at a private lab

• 222 investigations initiated based on testing

• 90 investigations remain active

• 132 investigations have been closed

• 20 individuals identified as being previously convicted

• 34 indictments issued

• 14 of those are suspects based on hits from the FBI’s Combined DNA Index (CODIS) System

• 20 suspects remain as John Doe, not identified

• 18 cases closed because victim or suspect has died

• 21 cases closed because victims have been contacted but did not want to participate in a further investigation

• 27 cases not caught before the statute of limitations expired

• 3 cases investigated did not meet the statute definitions of a crime

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Memphis Gaydar News

LGBTQ Police Liaison To Lead Spirituality Discussion

Davin Clemons

  • Davin Clemons

Davin Clemons, a Memphis Police officer who works on the TACT unit and serves as the LGBTQ liaison for department, also happens to be a motivational speaker, an ordained church elder, and the founder of Cathedral of Praise Church of Memphis, Inc.

He’s a member of Clergy Defending Rights for All, which worked with the Tennessee Equality Project to push the non-discrimination ordinance for city workers that passed two years ago. Through his role as police liaison, Clemons said he helps educate his fellow officers on cultural sensitivity.

On Tuesday, October 21st, Clemons will facilitate the monthly meeting of Spirituality Group at the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (892 S. Cooper). Clemons will deliver a presentation titled “Your Gift Is Calling …”

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Former MPD Officer Receives 11-Year Sentence for Raping College Student

Aaron Reinsberg

  • Aaron Reinsberg

A former Memphis police officer has been sentenced to 11 years in prison without parole for raping a Rhodes College student.

In January 2013, Aaron Reinsberg, 32, reportedly met the 21-year-old woman at a Beale Street nightspot, which she worked for part-time. The entertainment district in downtown Memphis was Reinsberg’s patrolling beat at the time.

The two exchanged phone numbers, and the victim went home. Reinsberg subsequently used his personal cellphone to access county law enforcement databases to find her home address, according to the Shelby County District Attorney General’s office.

The same night, Reinsberg traveled to the victim’s home and was allowed inside by her roommate. He was left alone with the woman in her bedroom.

The woman, who was inebriated, fell asleep while Reinsberg was in her room, according to reports. When she woke up, she was undressed and he was on top of her, raping her. Due to her intoxication, she was unable to resist Reinsberg during the incident.

Reinsberg, who joined the Memphis Police Department in 2011, has been convicted of raping the woman. This week, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison with no parole. The former officer was also sentenced to one year for official misconduct. The sentences will be served concurrently.

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Poplar Plaza Neighborhood Among Safest In City

CREDIT: Bianca Phillips

The community around Poplar Plaza is among the safest areas of the city, according to law enforcement. However, violence found its way there on September 6th, when a flash mob of teens attacked three people in the parking lot of the Poplar Plaza Kroger.

The assault began when a group of teens surrounded a 25-year-old man, swarming him with punches. Two teenage Kroger employees witnessed the attack and attempted to aid the man. They were both brutally assaulted.

After a video of the incident went viral, the story made headlines on news outlets ranging from the Huffington Post to CNN. This left the potential for people to stigmatize the area and think twice before shopping in Poplar Plaza. Some locals admitted to venturing to other Kroger establishments for groceries. Others took more precautionary measures.

“I carry a zapper now. I have no problem going [to Kroger]. They’re not running me out of my store,” said a High Point Terrace resident, the residential neighborhood east of the shopping plaza, at a meeting last week of the High Point Terrace Neighborhood Watch and Association.

According to the Memphis Police Department (MPD), those who reside in neighborhoods surrounding Poplar Plaza shouldn’t be more worried than normal about their safety.

MPD Colonel Terry Landrum, commander of the Tillman precinct, said information from Blue CRUSH, a data-driven initiative that uses information collected from MPD reports to determine and target crime hotspots, shows that the Poplar Plaza area and nearby neighborhoods have the lowest number of reported crimes in the entire precinct.

The Tillman precinct’s boundaries include Jackson Avenue and L&N Rail Road to the north, Park Avenue to the south, I-40 and I-240 to the east, and Airways and E. Parkway to the west.

In a mile radius of Oak Court Mall, which includes Poplar Plaza, Landrum said shoplifting and residential burglaries tend to occur more often than violent crimes.

“In the month of July, we’ve had three robberies, eight thefts of vehicles, 11 shopliftings, and 10 burglaries [in that area],” Landrum said. “In August, we’ve got nine burglaries, 12 shopliftings, and one robbery. In September, so far, we’ve had three burglaries and two shopliftings and no robberies.”

But some area residents remain bothered by the Kroger incident. High Point Terrace Neighborhood Watch and Association’s meeting at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church’s Fellowship Hall last week centered on the incident and what’s being done to make sure a similar event doesn’t take place in the future. The group brainstormed ways to provide at-risk youth throughout the city with more outlets, support, and mentorship to keep them away from participating in violent flash mobs.

Neighborhood residents, elected officials, Memphis city councilmembers, Shelby County commissioners, and representatives from law enforcement and civic organizations attended the meeting and contributed ideas. Representatives from Poplar Plaza’s Kroger and CiCi’s Pizza, where the teens met up before the Kroger attack, were also in attendance.

Fairy Shull has resided in High Point Terrace for three years and lives within walking distance of Poplar Plaza. Shull said she feels safe in her neighborhood and doesn’t view it or the shopping plaza in a different light following the Kroger parking lot melee.

“If somebody’s lawn mower’s stolen or anything like that, somebody’s on top of it,” Shull said with regard to her neighborhood. “Many of us are vigilant about paying attention to what cars are in our neighbor’s driveway. We are a very engaged community, and that’s precious. We’re right in the heart of the city.”

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Forum Explores Youth Violence Prevention Methods

CREDIT: Louis Goggans

The brutal beating of three people by a mob of teens in the Poplar Plaza Kroger parking lot Saturday night happened just days after a forum was held on ways to prevent youth violence.

Although no one was killed in the Kroger incident, situations involving youth violence don’t always have such endings — 58 of the 119 lives that fell victim to homicide in Memphis this year were between the ages of 18 and 34.

Memphis Police Department (MPD) Director Toney Armstrong announced these statistics during the “Youth Violence Prevention Forum” last Thursday evening.

“I’m using every resource [and] all the manpower that I have, but I can’t do everything,” Armstrong stated during the meeting.

Along with Mayor A C Wharton, Armstrong said he thought it would be helpful for local agencies and organizations that contribute resources toward combating youth violence to congregate. More than 100 representatives of city government, Shelby County Schools, and nonprofit agencies, as well as concerned locals gathered at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.

Attendees selected one of four breakout sessions including one on literacy and education. The session was intended as a gathering to generate ideas to help increase literacy among young minorities, but it also served as an outlet for participants to vent about the city’s crime, gang, and parenting issues.

One woman was almost in tears while reminiscing about her son, who was among the city’s homicide victims.

“I’m tired of seeing our black youth die in the street like it’s something calm,” she said. “Those are my young men out there in the street, and I feel responsible. We have to start with our children. I don’t care how many programs you produce, you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Until we take the time to teach our children as parents and neighborhood people what’s right and what’s wrong, and teach them the truth, it’s not going to work.”

Other sessions focused on employment opportunities and job readiness, parenting and mentoring, and after-school and athletic activities. At each session, strategies were established to better utilize current resources, and ideas were presented to create new efforts to decrease youth violence.

“The group felt that the community’s disconnect from support for families and communities was a root cause [of youth violence],” said Lisa Moore, facilitator for the parenting and mentoring session. “If there was community support for families and youth, then there would be adequate jobs, better education, and more activities.”

Ron Redwing of the Redwing Foundation and 100 Black Men of Memphis facilitated the employment opportunities and job readiness session. During the gathering, the group discussed creating a centralized database to share information on services offered to help young people find jobs. The group also thought it was important to motivate Memphis-based corporations to hire and retain local talent.

“We looked for specific opportunities to help increase young people’s employment, so that they were either well-trained or had better opportunities for jobs they could seek and become employed with,” Redwing said.

Although the Youth Violence Prevention Forum was arranged to produce new violence intervention strategies, some worry that it will simply be another event involving a multitude of locals who talk about making a change but fall short when it comes to implementing action behind their suggestions.

“I think it was well-intentioned, but I’m not sure that anything occurred that will move the needle,” said a city government official, who asked not to be identified. “It was a lot of preaching to the choir.”