Shelby County Commission again talks restricting sheriff's office special units
The Shelby County Board of Commissioners revisited three ordinances at Monday's meeting that could restrict specific policing efforts of the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. While the ordinances have drawn strong support from activist groups like Memphis For All and Decarcerate Memphis, support from commissioners has been mixed.
At previous meetings, an ordinance restricting the use of special forces within SCSO sparked concern among both commissioners and community members alike ― worries about restricting special victims units and organized crime units lead the discussions.
Commissioner Britney Thornton, who sponsored the ordinances said she met with Sheriff Floyd Bonner, and said that he agreed to another meeting to discuss the ordinances. The ordinance only received one yes vote, from Thornton, and seven nos. Commissioners Edmond Ford Jr., Miska Clay Bibbs and Mickell Lowery abstained.
Another ordinance that sparked debate regarded the use of biased traffic stops, limiting searches during traffic stops and barring surveillance as an alternative to pretextual stops. Commissioner Henri E. Brooks said that she cannot support the ordinances because they could end up unintendedly harming people. The ordinance also failed, only receiving three yes votes.
The third ordinance was overwhelmingly popular among commissioners. The ordinance would force SCSO to compile data in a particular way that would show where traffic stops happen and if force was used, among other things. The substitute ordinance that was adopted contained similar language to the previous one, but allowed for a phased rollout allowing agencies to purchase equipment and change some language in the past ordinance like including some body camera footage from officers.
All ordinances require three reads in front of the Commission. Monday was the first reading, and even though two failed, they will still appear in front of the Commission again.
Health Department developing comprehensive HIV, behavioral health dashboards
The Shelby County Health Department and the University of Memphis are partnering to develop multiple dashboards to monitor HIV infections, behavioral health substance use disorders, chronic health disorders and violence and injury prevention. The dashboards will monitor these by race, gender, socioeconomic status, age, and education.
Shelby County Health Department Director Michelle Taylor told commissioners during committee meetings that the first dashboard that will be released would be the HIV data monitoring system. SCHD received a $2.7 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which will fund the dashboard development.
Taylor said that the reason why the HIV dashboard would be developed first is because of the rising rates of infections among Shelby County residents. The hope, Taylor said, is that all the dashboards will be public-facing and user-friendly.
"Because of our rising rate of new HIV infections in the county, and in our area, we have gone from number three to number two in our area," Taylor said.
After the HIV dashboard is developed and released, SCHD and U of M will then work to develop and release the next dashboard.
Thornton questioned what the future of the program would be, as the students who will be trained to use and maintain the dashboard are not permanent fixtures. Taylor said that the students would also help train new employees and the cycle of training will continue to repeat itself.
Contract questions continue
Thornton has made a point to question the purchasing department at multiple meetings regarding the demographics of the individuals awarded contracts from the county. Discussions about those contracts typically only take place during committee meetings, unless items are pulled from the consent agenda.
Thornton has suggested a variety of solutions to diversify the businesses that are awarded contracts including breaking up contracts so that more vendors can be represented and doing month-to-month contracts. Some other options she has suggested have been to do a better job educating vendors who are a part of Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprises so that when requests for proposals are put out for a certain job, they can properly submit documents to be awarded the contract.
Thornton made a motion Monday to cancel the continuation of a long-term bid that has currently been awarded to provide food to current inmates in Shelby County Correctional Facilities. Equal Opportunity Compliance Director Shep Wilburn said that canceling the current contract would mean past the end of the contract, inmates could possibly not have a food source. Thornton responded by saying "Sometimes you have to disrupt to disrupt."
Commissioner Amber Mills asked if the Commission could be sued if inmates could go without food; County attorneys said yes.
The Commission will most likely continue to bid to the vendor on a short-term basis, in hopes that the future long-term contract would allow for the incorporation of minority or locally-owned businesses within the contracts.
Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at Brooke.Muckerman@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter/X @BrookeMuckerman.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County looks at limiting sheriff's department special units
