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.
