Floyd Bonner seeks shift from sheriff to Memphis mayor while focusing on crime & facing critics

Floyd Bonner grew up with a love of science. He always thought he’d end up in a science field — maybe biology. But as he headed to college, he needed a job and his father, a longtime police officer, suggested applying to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

Bonner applied. Now, 42 years later, he still loves science but has decided that the sheriff’s office was his “calling.” He also said he’s ready to take the next step in his career as he seeks the office of Memphis mayor.

Elected sheriff in 2018 and reelected in 2022, Bonner, 64, heads the law enforcement agency for the largest county in Tennessee, overseeing about 2,000 employees and a $190 million budget. His election was historic, making him the first Black sheriff in Shelby County.

He’s widely considered a frontrunner in the Oct. 5 race for Memphis mayor, especially in a time when a platform focused on stopping crime resonates with Memphians. He has raised $137,000 in the last reported period, bringing his campaign balance to $534,000, behind just one other candidate.

Bonner’s campaign has also faced some of the fiercest criticism out of all the candidates. Despite the criticism, Bonner remains firm that his law enforcement career makes him best poised to address crime in Memphis.

“We don't need a mayor that's going to take two to three years to figure out policing,” Bonner told The Commercial Appeal in an August interview. “We need something done right now. And we need someone that's going to tackle it on day one.”

Floyd Bonner talks love for Memphis, move out of the city

Bonner grew up in Orange Mound, graduating from Hillcrest High School and receiving a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice at the University of Memphis.

In his time as sheriff, he’s received acclaim from other law enforcement officers, including being named Tennessee Sheriff of the Year in 2023.

He loves Memphis, Bonner said, and “would trade it for nothing in the world.”

But an early feature of Bonner’s candidacy for mayor was a lawsuit over residency. A chancellor ended up deciding that the city has no five-year residency requirement for mayor, paving the way for Bonner and one other candidate, former County Commissioner Van Turner, to continue their campaigns.

Although Bonner lived in Bartlett for years, he disputes the characterization that he just moved back to the city in January.

“I’ve been in Memphis all my life,” he said.

The move out of the city was a necessary one, he said. Years ago, he lived in Whitehaven with his family, working as an undercover narcotics officer.

One day, while shopping with his wife and two sons in the Southland Mall, Bonner was approached by a man whom he’d arrested just a few days earlier. The man pressed something into Bonner’s back, threatening him.

“It was quite scary for me and I remember my wife walking away down the mall teary-eyed, and my boys were very small at the time,” Bonner said.  “And I just, you know, I enjoyed my work so, but I could not let my family be in danger during that time, so we moved to unincorporated Shelby County.”

His work continued to be primarily focused in Memphis, Bonner said.

Crime top focus of Floyd Bonner platform

He’s running for mayor because the number one issue in Memphis is crime, Bonner said.

His platform of prioritizing crime fighting has garnered him several major endorsements, including the Memphis Police Association, the Memphis Fire Fighters Association and the Association of City Retired Employees.

Mark Lowe, a longtime sheriff’s office employee who also leads the Shelby County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, said Bonner knows Memphis and the job of law enforcement well.

“We’re dealing with a crime issue,” Lowe said. “Our crime in this city now is out of control. Him having a background in law enforcement gives him an edge where he can go to work right now.”

Lowe said his law enforcement “brothers” in the city “need someone who can guide them,” particularly as the police department is faced with challenges such as a U.S. Department of Justice pattern or practice investigation launched in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols.

“They need a mayor — and the fire department’s the same way — they need a mayor who can go like that day one, hit the ground running,” Lowe said.

Bonner said he will, if elected, work to restructure the Memphis Police Department so more officers can be “out on the streets of Memphis,” rather than doing desk jobs, working as public information officers or servicing pole cameras. Instead, those things could be done by civilians, he said.

To increase the number of officers, retirees could be brought back part time to work in detective divisions and recruiters would look to small towns as well as larger cities.

Looking back on his time as sheriff, Bonner said he’s most proud of instating a civilian hiring board to review applications and to interview potential deputy sheriffs. Both the civilian board and the sheriff’s office would have to agree to hire someone.

“I think we're hiring a better, better person a more rounded person, a person that the community can accept because we have community leaders that are interviewing them as well as what we're looking for in the deputy sheriff from a law enforcement standpoint,” Bonner said.

Memphis voter guide 2023: The hub for mayoral, City Council election coverage

Other priorities if elected would include cleaning up blight through nonprofit partnerships and seeking state and federal dollars to do crime intervention programs.

In his interview with The CA, Bonner said his current relationship with leadership in Nashville, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, could help direct state tax dollars to Memphis.

Memphis needs things like a Tennessee College of Applied Technology inside city limits, Bonner said.

“If you look at what I've been able to accomplish, even in my last two election, I've had Black, white, Republicans, Democrats to vote for me,” Bonner said. “We got to tear down those old silos and forget all of that stuff. Let's talk about Memphis. Let's talk about what's going to make our city great.”

As Memphis police faces DOJ investigation, sheriff's office also receives criticism

If elected, Bonner will take office as city mayor as MPD undergoes a federal investigation launched in the wake of the death of Nichols and spurred by what the DOJ has called multiple reports of violence and racism by the police department.

Bonner’s own department has faced scrutiny in recent months, particularly after the death of 21-year-old Jarveon Hudspeth during a June traffic stop and the death of 33-year-old Gershun Freeman, who died after a “physical altercation” with correctional officers.

Bonner, whose duties include overseeing the county jail at 201 Poplar, took office as sheriff at the tail end of a memorandum of agreement between the DOJ and Shelby County regarding juvenile court, including the juvenile detention facility overseen by the sheriff’s office. The jail itself has been faced with an ongoing consent decree during COVID-19 regarding pandemic safety for detainees. Bonner’s opponents have also criticized him for the increase in jail deaths in recent years.

“You know, I've been through a few DOJ investigations, but the Department of Justice when they do come in and do those types of investigation is really to help the agency make it better,” Bonner told The CA, adding that he would cooperate with any recommendations the DOJ makes to MPD. “You hope you get good findings. But if you don’t, then you make corrective action.”

Bonner also defended his decision not to release video of the shooting death of Hudspeth, even though he had previously praised the city for its release of the video showing police officers beating Nichols.

Release of video was delayed in Hudspeth’s death because the sheriff’s office needed to get a statement from the injured deputy, Bonner said. Then, the office turned the information over to the Shelby County District Attorney, leaving it to the district attorney’s office to decide whether to release any video.

“Right now it’s out of our hands,” Bonner said. “We’re following the law, what the law says. We’ve done everything that we needed to do to move this case along.”

Bonner wants Memphis to ‘tell (its) own story’

Ultimately, Bonner said he doesn’t see a potential shift from county sheriff to city mayor as a career change. Both, he said, are about serving the community.

And his campaign for mayor is something that arises out of his love for Memphis, he said.

“I'm running for mayor because the number one issue in our community is public safety. It breaks my heart when I hear people, businesses and people talking about leaving Memphis. I think we need to tell our own story a little bit more. I think we need to talk about the good things that are going on in our town,” Bonner said. “I want to be the mayor because I want to tackle that tough issue, and trust me, it’s going to be tough to change mindsets.”Katherine Burgess covers government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Floyd Bonner in Memphis elections: Get to know the mayoral candidate