FOX13 Investigates use of pretextual traffic stops with local, federal officers in Memphis
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Since the 2023 death of Tyre Nichols, people living in Memphis have watched the traffic enforcement policies change.
After Nichols’s death in January 2023, multiple first responders were fired, and the former Memphis Police officers involved were charged with federal and state charges.
By March, city councilmembers voted on and passed six ordinances, including one that banned pretextual traffic stops. These stops include police pulling people over for broken taillights and loose bumpers.
By 2024, the Tennessee state legislature had passed a law to block Memphis and other cities from banning pretextual police traffic stops. During a March vote, Shelby County Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) said, “It’s about the city council preempting state law. We can’t allow that as a legislature—to allow a city or county government that doesn’t like a law we passed to simply pre-empt it.”
This week, Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis told the city council that in a two-week span, from September 20 to October 4, MPD issued 1,804 traffic citations for infractions like speeding, reckless driving, and drive-out tags.
FOX13 spoke to Councilman Jeff Warren Thursday about the presentation.
“I mean, if it’s speeding, reckless driving, things like that, yeah, take them to jail. But if it’s because they didn’t have money to pay for their license or their registration, or, you know, they had parking tickets and they couldn’t afford to pay them, but they’re supporting their family and they’re going to work every day, I don’t want those people going to jail,” he said.
The department did not give a further breakdown of other infractions. Warren told FOX13 with an influx of traffic patrol and stops from MPD as well as federal officials, the council needs to make sure to keep track of updates on the patterns.
“Things are complicated. Nothing is 100% good or bad. We need to take the good from this but we need to call out the bad,” said Warren.
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