State Sen. from Memphis files bill to prevent cities, counties from limiting police activity

State Sen. Brent Taylor on Wednesday filed a bill that would prevent city and county governments in Tennessee from restricting police departments from performing some types of traffic stops.

The bill would supersede reforms made by the Memphis City Council last year in the wake of Tyre Nichols' beating at the hands of Memphis police officers, allowing Memphis police to engage in what are often called pretextual traffic stops.

"Crime is on the rise across the country," Taylor, a Republican representing parts of East Memphis, Eads, Germantown, Bartlett and other Shelby County suburbs, wrote in a press release posted on Facebook. "Violent crime has reached a crisis level in Memphis. Police officers and sheriffs need to have more tools available to combat rising crime, not fewer. This proposed law will prohibit cities and counties from restricting routine traffic stops and other crime-fighting tactics."

The press release specifically mentions a "resolution" to ban pretextual stops passed by the Memphis City Council, which was actually an ordinance amending the city's charter. The ordinance restricts the Memphis Police Department from pulling people over for expired tags, broken tail lights, loose bumpers and other low-level traffic offenses commonly associated with poverty.

The ordinance took aim at what activists, and some on the Memphis City Council, saw as a problem in the way police fight crime. While the ordinance was being considered, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy called pretextual stops the "automotive equivalent of stop and frisk,” a policy tactic that was infamously problematic in New York City.

In explaining the bill, Taylor said traffic stops are "a proven means of catching violent offenders."

"Routine traffic stops have resulted in major arrests and the apprehension of violent criminals for years," Taylor wrote in the press release. "Whether it's the random drug trafficker pulled over for running a stop sign or the most well-known case — Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — routine traffic stops are a proven means of catching violent offenders, drug traffickers and other dangerous criminals."

A review of the now-defunct SCORPION Unit of the Memphis Police Department, which was meant to specialize in suppressing violent crime, and the charges levied by its officers found that the majority of the charges were low-level drug possession and vehicle registration violations.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com, or (901)208-3922, and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter, @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Brent Tayor files bill to stop pretextual stop bans in Tennessee