Audio Story

Spotlight on MPD Excessive Force Complaints

Published

November 27, 2020

Investigative reporter Marc Perrusquia on excessive force complaints at MPD

For months, investigative reporter Marc Perrusquia has been looking into a large tranche of excessive force allegations at the Memphis Police Department. He found that in many cases, MPD was treating the incidents as internal issues instead of referring them to the District Attorney as potentially criminal acts.

Recently D.A. Amy Weirich has requested that all excessive force complaints be handed over for review. Furthermore, MPD now advises people that they can independently investigate an excessive force matter.

For Perrusquia, these are welcome changes, but do not yet expose some of the larger concerns, including media access to reports and video evidence.

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Written By Christopher Blank

Christopher Blank, The Institute’s Senior Producer, is News Director at WKNO-FM and a contributor to NPR. Before public radio, he worked for The Commercial Appeal, the St. Petersburg Times and was a special publications editor for Florida Trend magazine. In addition to numerous awards for reporting, he is an Annenberg-Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, a two-time NEA Arts Journalism Fellow, and a recipient of the Germantown Arts Alliance’s Arts and Humanities Medal. In his spare time, he produces the annual Tennessee Williams Tribute, a theater festival, in Columbus, Miss.