'Tragedy and triumph.' A look back at Jim Strickland's 8 years as Memphis mayor

Outgoing Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's tenure was marked by some of Memphis' highest recent moments.

The early years were marked by the removal of statues of Confederate generals from city parks, and Strickland's administration would later be part of erecting monuments to Black leaders.

"One question I got tired of answering was, 'Why in the hell do you have a Nathan Bedford Forrest statue in the center of the city?'" said LaSimba Gray Jr., pastor emeritus at New Sardis Baptist Church. "To have us answer that question over and over again, it just didn't make sense. Mayor Strickland relieved us of that question, but then he went on to erect some positive kinds of monuments, like the I Am a Man monument, the Martin Luther King reflection park. Those kinds of activities took on a whole new meaning for the City of Memphis."

Gray listed that feat as among Strickland's most remarkable moves as mayor, pointing to the length of time the Confederate monuments stood in Memphis.

"No one was able to do that," Gray said. "But, man, Strickland strategically pulled the community together, and put a tremendous legal team together to successfully remove those statues and symbols."

The last several years of Strickland's administration have also been trumpeted as banner years for economic development and business growth in the Mid-South.

When the city took over the COVID response, including the vaccination process, Strickland's administration started regular briefings to communicate with Memphians about the latest information available during a turbulent time.

"We needed to be open and honest, and communicate with the public," Strickland told The Commercial Appeal. "I'm really proud of our team in several regards."

The administration was also marred by some of the lowest lows, including the beating and death of Tyre Nichols which drew negative attention from across the world. The shadow of Nichols' death, though taking place at the start of Strickland's last year, will hang over the city into Mayor-elect Paul Young's administration as the Department of Justice continues its pattern-or-practice investigation into the Memphis Police Department.

Strickland has drawn criticism from the left ― and been censured by the Shelby County Democratic Party ― for not being liberal enough but has succeeded in building relationships in Memphis and with Nashville and was given a mandate by Memphis voters in 2019 when he won re-election by a significant margin.

Beverly Robertson, the former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, said the administration faced unprecedented challenges and, in many ways, impressed her in the handling of them.

"I would characterize the administration as an administration of both tragedy and triumph. And I would say tragedy, because of what we experienced with Tyre Nichols. This is the first time in the history of the city that we've experienced a three, four-year pandemic," she said. "And I think the mayor, who has served two terms, has had to deal with things no other Mayor can ever say that they had to deal with. And I think to have weathered those storms, and to have put what I would call the necessary processes and public communications in place, is wonderful."

Strickland promised more cops, less crime, struggled to achieve both

Strickland ran both of his campaigns with a focus on crime reduction and hiring police. Throughout his eight-year tenure, neither focus was demonstrably successful. Violent crime and property crime have continued to increase during Strickland’s administration, including a record-setting number of homicides in 2023.

Upon taking office in 2016, the Memphis Police Department had just over 2,000 officers on staff. That number had declined from 2,400 over the preceding five years. It continued to decline during Strickland’s first term and eventually stagnated around 2,000.

Susan Adler Thorp, a Memphis political strategist, said the environment for police officers is also much different than it was years ago with social media as large as is and videos being recorded on phones and easily posted online, it has become a "different world," for police recruitment.

"The pay is okay, the benefits aren't that great....I can't point a finger directly at Mayor Jim Strickland and say it's his fault. I think there are a lot of reasons," Thorp said.

However, the lack of police, and first responder resources, in one of the south’s most sprawling cities was felt by Gray over Thanksgiving weekend when a woman was shot.

“When they called 911, no ambulance was available,” Gray said. “Her sister and her mother had been killed. She was shot and was waiting for medical services to come. That’s how critical it is in terms of having adequate staffing, having the right number of police officers, the right number of medics, the right number of people involved in intervention and working with the communities.”

More: Memphis Mayor-elect Paul Young makes next round of administration appointments. Here's who

With about twice as much square mileage to tackle compared to a city of similar demographics in Detroit, MPD has sported between 300 and 500 fewer officers on staff during Strickland’s tenure.

“You’ve got resources spread awfully thin, and it takes a significant amount of minutes to get across town,” Gray said.

Throughout his time as mayor, Strickland offered signing bonuses of $15,000, and a $10,000 relocation bonus to try and attract new officers. Other bonuses included a $5,000 bonus to officers who recruit someone who then graduates the academy.

“We’re trying to not only incentivize police officers to stay, but to recruit and help us grow the department,” Strickland told The Commercial Appeal in a recent interview. “Throughout those eight years, police officers have gotten over a 30% pay raise. We’re now the highest-paid police force in the area, which is a big thing and it’s a change that we’ve got to maintain.”

Currently, the number of police employed by MPD fluctuates between 2,000 and 1,900. Strickland said the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath stalled hiring during his time in office. Bill Gibbons, the president of the Memphis-Shelby County Crime Commission, said that number could have been lower “if Mayor Strickland had not taken the steps he had taken.”

“We could have easily gone down to 1,500 or 1,600 officers,” Gibbons said. “He was able to stabilize the situation. What he wanted to do was increase that number, and I think he would be the first to admit that that’s been a real struggle.”

Applicant standards were also lowered, discarding requirements to have either college credits, military service or previous police work that once were barriers to being hired. Now, five years of work experience anywhere makes someone qualified to apply.

The department also dropped fitness requirements due to the number of recruits that were failing.

Strickland, however, said he did not view it as lowering standards but as changing the standards.

“If you’re 21, and you’ve worked for five years at FedEx, and you’ve had a really good work history, you’re mature enough to be a police officer,” Strickland said. “So we added that category, I don’t think that weakened [standards] at all, I think it just opened it up to really strong categories because college isn’t for everyone. To think you have to have a college degree, or join the military, is unfair to the people who don’t want to do those two things.”

Strickland, in reflecting on his time in office, said he was proud of the steps his office took to tackle root causes of crime. In his time in office, he made a concerted effort to invest in revitalization of the city’s parks and community centers and introduced a violence intervention program that worked from his office.

“We doubled the number of children taking part in our programming at community centers and libraries,” he said. “We doubled our summer jobs program. We inserted literacy training in our summer camps, in our spring camps. We made those two free for the first time ever… We have a gang violence interruption program where young people are in gangs, or thinking about being in a gang or hanging out with the wrong crowd, we will help them ― intensive intervention ― to get them on the right track into a career. We’ve had real success.”

Despite starting those programs, the number of crimes reported in Memphis has continued to rise. Over Strickland’s final year in office, he pointed to what he calls “the revolving door” of the criminal justice system as the key in Memphis’ crime troubles.

“I know people are frustrated with crime. I’m frustrated with crime. But we’ve done everything that a city can do to combat crime,” Strickland said. “It’s just we don’t control all the levers that cause crime… But the revolving door in our court system is absolutely the cause of this year’s huge spike in crime.”

Strickland has cited low bail amounts and lax sentences as reasons for crime. Data from the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office showed about 12.5% of all offenses committed were alleged to have been committed by people out on bail between the start of 2021 and March 2023. And less than 1% of offenses were violent crimes committed while someone was out on bail.

More: Shelby County DA to place added focus, vigor to 'priority' violent offenses in 2024

Most perpetrators of major violent and property crime were never brought before a judge, or arrested, data collected by the FBI and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation ― which is submitted by MPD annually ― indicated. The department “cleared” about 20% of all cases each year during Strickland’s administration and declined to 18% in 2022.

The city refuted the numbers from TBI and FBI, citing higher clearance rates. Those rates, MPD said, included when an arrest warrant is signed, but an arrest has not been made.

In his final interview as mayor with The CA, Strickland went beyond pointing to the courts and DA’s office in Shelby County as being part of the city’s crime problem.

“I disagree with the DA, we have a different philosophy,” Strickland said. “I’ve been the most vocal person in Memphis to that end. But it’s bigger than [DA Steve Mulroy]. It’s juvenile court, it’s the judges and our laws. Basically, state and federal laws allow the proliferation of guns throughout our streets but inadequately punish the wrongful use of those guns. That’s a bad combination that allows a lot of guns on the street.”

Strickland has long been outspoken about the need for stricter gun legislation but said the most he could do as mayor was advocate for the city and speak with governors. After eight years, and two governors that he spoke highly of, Strickland said being proactive with Memphis’ youth is important.

“I strongly believe that [access to guns and soft sentences] are our real problem and challenge for Memphis,” he said. “We’ve got to do more and more for young people so that they don’t pick up that easy access to guns. We’ve got to change their hearts and minds about that.”

Tyre Nichols' death could pose long-term damage to police relations

MPD Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis has previously said part of the problem in solving crime in Memphis is neighbors not telling police investigators what they have seen. According to Gray, this problem was exacerbated after Nichols was beaten by officers during a traffic stop in January.

“There’s a breach in the community-police relationships,” Gray said. “It boils down to, same as in education, you follow the money and where the money comes from, and you’ll find the resources. Unfortunately, even with African American police directors, that seemingly there was a trend that has not changed.”

Gray said better relations between communities ― particularly Memphis’ communities of color ― would increase the number of crimes that are solved.

“What I want to see is more community relationships developed, where the citizens of the African American community would come to trust our police officers and work with them ― be willing to work with them to solve crime ― because police cannot solve crime by themselves,” he said. “It will have to come through collaborations with the communities."

Nichols died three days after the beating when he was taken off life support at St. Francis Hospital. Weeks after his death, the city released footage from body cameras and a pole camera. The officers were subsequently fired and criminally charged.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump was retained by Nichols’ family and would go on to call Strickland and Davis’ handling of the incident “the blueprint for America.” That praise, however, did not stop Crump from condemning the city for the creation of the SCORPION Unit, which the officers that beat Nichols were part of.

The unit was introduced shortly after Davis was hired in 2021, and Strickland touted the arrests the unit made shortly after being established. Following Nichols’ death, activists and protesters called for the unit to be disbanded, which it ultimately was.

In the $550 million federal civil lawsuit Crump filed against the city, Crump alleged Nichols’ death was foreseeable due to perceived similarities between the SCORPION Unit and the RED DOG Unit that Davis oversaw when she was with the Atlanta Police Department. The RED DOG Unit would eventually be shuttered after allegations of police brutality were levied against it.

Months after Nichols’ death, the Department of Justice announced it would be launching a pattern-or-practice investigation into MPD. The investigation focuses on whether MPD regularly engages in discriminatory policing, unconstitutional searches and arrests, and if it regularly uses excessive force against people.

Strickland took issue when the DOJ announced the investigation, saying he was not involved with the decision to open it, and said Thursday he does not believe the investigation will find any constitutional violations.

“The Memphis Police Department does not have a pattern or practice of depriving constitutional rights of its citizens,” he said. “If the allegation is made, first I’d like to look at that allegation and see if they’re true. But I don’t believe it’s true [that MPD violates the constitution].”

In federal court filings, the city has argued that they should be dismissed from the case because the officers involved in beating Nichols were “rogue” and not indicative of wider misconduct.

Nichols’ death triggered the Memphis City Council to engage in debate over several possible reforms beyond the steps Strickland enacted in the wake of mass protests over George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.

Should the DOJ find a pattern or practice of violations within the department, the city could implement more reforms by entering into a consent decree with solutions proposed by the government. Those changes, however, will come long after Strickland hands the office over to Young.

'A lot has actually changed'

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen first met Strickland in the 1980s, when he was a state senator and Strickland was an intern with the Tennessee legislature. And though he didn’t know exactly what career path the young man would take, Cohen could envision him holding public office.

Strickland seemed bright and personable. Cohen felt he had “all the makings of a good politician.”

A few decades later, Strickland was elected mayor of Memphis, and he worked with Cohen on a variety of projects to strengthen the Bluff City economically. For example, Cohen pointed to the historic Melrose High School in Orange Mound, which was vacant for years but is being turned into a community asset with a library, genealogy center, and senior living apartments. He noted that they worked together to mitigate the parking debacle facing the Memphis Zoo and Overton Park. He maintained that they both supported plans to replace the I-55 bridge to Arkansas and that they worked together to try and secure a Memphis-to-Nashville passenger railway ― which is being explored in a study.

“Whenever the mayor asked for help, I was always willing to help him,” Cohen said. “He’s very collegial and easy to work with. He did a great job as mayor.”

Strickland’s economic efforts also span beyond community centers and transportation infrastructure. FedEx founder Fred Smith once told him to “focus on the meds and the eds” ― medical facilities, hospitals, and educational facilities ― and he took this to heart. So, it’s no surprise that when The CA asked Strickland about the biggest economic victories of his administration, he mentioned the expansions of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Early in his tenure, St. Jude officials told him and his team that they wanted to expand their research and fundraising efforts on their campus in the Pinch district. But the sewer system in the area was outdated; it still used terracotta pipes.

“They wanted us in the state to fix that, and we said, ‘absolutely,’” Strickland explained. “St. Jude, because of that investment from the city, has already expanded their employment by 2,000 new people and they have another 2,000 coming there… Obviously, their life-saving work is the most important part of St. Jude. But when you look at just the cold economic facts, all those jobs are really good-paying jobs. And they're becoming our second most important employer behind FedEx.”

When thinking about economic achievements, Strickland also mentioned helping Memphis retain ServiceMaster Global Holdings, which would ultimately sell ServiceMaster Brands and focus on its other business, pest control giant Terminix. In 2016, local leaders convinced ServiceMaster to stay in Memphis and incentivized it to relocate its headquarters Downtown; and this, Strickland noted, was a “really clear signal that we were going to aggressively go after economic development here.”

And go after it they did.

During Strickland’s tenure, major projects sprouted throughout the city. A $200 million renovation of the Renasant Convention Center was completed, as were two key components of the massive One Beale Development, the 227-room Hyatt Centric and 136-room Caption by Hyatt. A $63 million renovation of Tom Lee Park crossed the finish line. Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be spent to renovate the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium and FedExForum. And the center of the city has been invigorated by the Liberty Park project ― a major public-private partnership that already boasts the pristine Memphis Sports & Events Center, and is expected to have a hotel and apartments by its completion.

“There’s been a lot of progress on the economic development front during his tenure,” said Robertson, the former chamber CEO. “In eight years, a lot has actually changed in Memphis.”

Robertson also noted another area of strength for Strickland’s administration that goes beyond specific developments ― an increased focus on equitable contracting for Black and other minority businesses.

“It has been appalling, over the years, to understand that we [Memphis] have been more than… 60% African American, and at one point we [African Americans] were getting less than 1% of the contract. That’s got to be intentional; that cannot be accidental. That’s why you’ve got to be intentional about solving that. And I will say that this mayor has probably done more than other administrations in terms of trying to be much more equitable and making opportunities ― certainly from a government standpoint ― available to much broader audiences.”

That’s not to say the Strickland administration’s economic development record has been flawless.

While the Liberty Park development has been hailed as a successful public-private partnership, reporting from The Daily Memphian has shown that the city is struggling to pay for its portion of the project. And though two components of the One Beale development were completed, the largest one ― the 359-room hotel the Grand Hyatt ― faltered amid a public disagreement between Strickland and developer Chance Carlisle over financing.

Strickland maintains that his administration “made the right determination, which was because of COVID, and its impact on the economy and its impact on people’s ability to borrow money.”

“They needed more government assistance, and there's only so much government can do in those circumstances,” he said.

But he acknowledges that the hotel would have met one of the city’s key needs: another large hotel that can complement the Renasant Convention Center by providing enough lodging for conference attendants.

“I am in a couple of national organizations who'd love to come to Memphis,” Robertson said. “But Memphis can't accommodate 40,000-50,000 People at a convention. We just can't...building some larger hotels that can accommodate really big conventions coming to Memphis would be really, really important.”

The Grand Hyatt could have given organizations more hotel space to work with. So could the proposed, 20-plus story Loews Hotel, which the Loews Hotel Corporation pulled the plug on in February 2022 amid a tight lending environment.

“COVID had a really negative impact on that,” Strickland said. “We've had other opportunities for a second convention center hotel, but the economics of it made it so hard, because of COVID and its impact on interest rates.”

He’s confident, however, that Memphis will ultimately get the hotels it needs, as interest rates come down. And he believes that the next mayor, Paul Young, will make securing them a priority.

“I expect Mayor-elect Young to really focus on that because he's very familiar with Downtown, and how important the hospitality industry is for Downtown,” he said.

He isn’t the only one with faith in Young’s ability to strengthen Memphis economically, either.

“Memphis is kind of at a crossroads, and it needs economic development to help kids have a reason to stay in Memphis, and not leave with the crime,” Cohen said. “We’ve got problems attracting people to Memphis, and we need to keep the young people we have here and give them opportunity. I think Paul’s got strong support…He's got a lot of young people that are active in the community. They supported him; he was their candidate. And I think he's going be responsive to that constituency ― which is important for the future of Memphis.”

What happens next

The political and social environment Strickland was first elected to in 2016 mirrors the environment Young will be entering is similar, Thorp said. Memphis saw a record 228 homicides in 2016, and in years prior it was climbing.

From the start of 2023 to September, Memphis has had 314 reported homicides with that number climbing in the months after. Strickland's initial campaign focused on crime, poverty, and blight throughout Memphis. Thorp said that Young is entering a similar climate around crime in Memphis, but the numbers are even higher.

"You knew there was crime, but it didn't seem as out of control as it is now," she said.

While the rising crime rates harken back to the first years of Strickland's administration, Thorp said it is a "different environment." Politically, crime was also front of mind for Memphians voting in 2015 when Strickland won his first campaign for mayor. Strickland ran on reducing crime, but numbers have continued to rise throughout his tenure.

"Crime today, as compared to eight years ago just seems so much more heightened and people's awareness," Thorp said.

Thorp said defining the legacy of a mayor so soon after their time in office is completed is difficult. But, Thorp said, looking back years from now Strickland's ability to move through the pandemic could be his legacy.

"I think his legacy would be that he took us through the COVID era....and he did it well, and he did it efficiently," Thorp said. "Will crime be part of his legacy? That remains to be seen. Because if mayor Young doesn't get a handle on crime, then what happened under Strickland will fade away. And mayor Young is going to have to own it."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Outgoing Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland on crime, Tyre Nichols, economy