'Get out of our silos.' Memphis, Shelby Co., state officials meet for crime summit

Gathering officials in a single room to talk about how to combat Memphis' rising crime rates led to conversations with the "right level of tension," Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said after the meeting Thursday.

A number of city, county and state officials, and one federal official, gathered on the fourth floor of Crosstown Concourse for a closed-door crime summit. There were no cameras inside the room — no press, no recorders and no community members. Harris said it was the first time he had seen so many leaders in one place for a long time.

"It was a robust conversation," Harris said at a press conference after the meeting. "Lots of different voices were heard today. The right level of tension, but also the right spirit of collaboration was also present. I don't know if I've seen a convening like this in a while, and I think it's time for all of us to get out of our silos and start working together."

The crime summit was announced in late July by Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, and many officials from the local and state levels were invited to attend.

Multiple members of the Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff's Office, state legislature, and city and county government attended. The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Kevin Ritz, was also present, alongside members of the Shelby County District Attorney's Office.

The exact conversations that were had at the summit, which Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said they had "spent the whole day in," were not talked about with media. Mulroy said that was to ensure that the spirit of open expression was maintained.

"I think the consistent message from all of us and several others...is that we all recognize that we have a serious crime problem," Mulroy said. "We have a crime crisis right now, and it requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackle the problem... We are absolutely committed to continuing to vigorously prosecute repeat violent offenders who deserve serious prison time. At the same time, we are also committed to addressing the various due process problems that are present in our system, so that those defendants who are, in fact, guilty can, in fact, be held accountable."

Although not delving into specifics, Mulroy said the group agreed that a larger emphasis on violence intervention could be part of the solution. He also said there will be an effort to curb crime by investing in infrastructure.

"[We] also hope to start preventing crime through something called 'crime prevention through environmental design,' where we're targeting high-crime hotspot areas in Memphis and trying to create environmental improvements so that it is not as hospitable for crime," he said. "We're talking about street lighting where it's needed, and vacant lot clearing where it's needed, and remediating blighted buildings so that crime can be prevented from happening in the first place."

Mulroy also said the summit included a discussion over meaningful supervision, and adding resources for defendants during and after their case has concluded to make sure they get adequate mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, job training, earning their GED, job placement support and "doing everything that we can to make it less likely that they will repeat offend."

State Sen. Brent Taylor, State Rep. John Gillespie and State Rep. Jesse Chism were also present. Taylor said he plans to reintroduce his blended sentencing bill when the legislature reconvenes in January. The bill would allow juveniles who are convicted of a crime and later turn 19 would be able to serve the rest of their sentence in juvenile court until they turn 25.

Gillespie is also introducing legislation that would legally differentiate aggravated assault charges, so there can be harsher consequences for people who non-fatally shoot at people.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Local, state officials meet in Memphis for crime reduction summit