Weekly Update: On the officer-involved shooting this week

Friends,

Ever since Monday night’s officer-involved shooting, I’ve stayed in close contact with our team, including Police Director Mike Rallings, to ensure that we’re responding in a responsible and transparent way.

Like you, I think it’s disturbing that some of the body and in-car cameras were turned off prior to the shooting. As I said Wednesday, in my eyes, it is unacceptable and inexcusable — no question about it.

We're absolutely going to get to the bottom of this.

While the TBI is investigating the shooting, our administrative investigation has already started. I've directed our team to conduct the investigation as quickly as possible.

We made a major investment of energy and your tax dollars in rolling out body cameras back in 2015-16. They’re important for our officers and for our citizens — and for building trust and transparency with you.

Since launch, we’ve recorded 560,856 hours of video on body cameras — and slightly more hours (568,751) on in-car cameras. We have body cameras on 1,650 officers and in-car cameras in 535 squad cars and 10 police service technician cars. And we’ve produced 329 videos for court cases.

I have long believed we can have a strong police department that does its part to reduce violent crime while also having a transparent, responsible police department that protects and serves. These two things are not mutually exclusive, and I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure we’re meeting these goals.

A Q&A: The Daily Memphian, the new online news outlet in town, launched Monday. I was glad to sit down with Bill Dries for this Q&A.

Congrats, Redbirds: For the second straight year, our Redbirds are the champions of the Pacific Coast League! But this year, they went one better — winning the Triple-A national championship Tuesday night over Durham.

The renaissance of the Redbirds is one of the great sports stories in our town in recent years. Thanks to Stubby Clapp, owners Peter Freund and Craig Unger, and all the Redbirds for this special time.

Doing the work: I pride myself in being in the community and not always in City Hall, and that goes for every day of the week. But Saturdays are even more special on my calendar, as I prioritize that day to go from event to event to event to event (and, yes, sneak in a Tiger game).

Last Saturday (which had no Tiger game) really stuck with me. I visited the West Clinic’s fun run to beat cancer, the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen’s run to raise money to help the poor, the Sisters Network event to promote breast cancer awareness, and the City’s Family Fun Day for employees. I realized there was a common thread between these events: Everyday Memphians sacrificing their time, talents, and treasure to help their fellow Memphians.

I just want to take a minute today to say thank you — for all you do, and for working together with us to make the Memphis we all want.

Yours,