Memphis police chief was a 'rising star.' After Tyre Nichols' death, Cereyln Davis faces questions.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Cerelyn “CJ” Davis was sworn in as Memphis’ first Black female police chief in June 2021 in a time of skyrocketing crime rates and high hopes for change. 

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, Davis, a more than 30-year law enforcement veteran, was heralded as a “rising star of police reform."

While serving as the police chief in Durham, North Carolina, Davis testified before the U.S. Senate about the need for sweeping police reform following Floyd’s murder and called for a national ban on chokeholds. 

In Memphis, she was the first outsider in decades to lead the department, the largest in Tennessee. City leaders were hopeful Davis would bring fresh ideas for fighting crime and improving community relations. 

“When she was hired everyone put their faith in her as a chief to do her best, to do things efficiently and to see a decrease in crime and an increase in a feeling of safety,” Ccity council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas said.

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Two years into her tenure as chief, Davis faces a pivotal time in her career with Memphis in the national spotlight for the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who died three days after being brutally beaten, tased and pepper sprayed by Memphis police officers.

National and local leaders initially praised her swift action to fire five officers who were soon indicted in Nichols’ death. But once the video of Nichols' brutal beating was released to the public, support for Davis soured, with some questioning why a white officer seen using a Taser and calling for Nichols to be “stomp(ed)” was not fired and charged along with the other five officers, all of whom are Black.

Police only released the identity of a sixth officer after activists identified him online. A seventh officer, also relieved of duty, has not been identified.

“What the community wanted was transparency, and with the firing of the five officers we were thinking we were getting it for the first time in recent history,” said Andre Johnson, a professor of rhetoric and media studies at the University of Memphis. “But then we learn that another officer was only suspended, so people are kind of frustrated right now. I’ve talked to several who say, ‘Oh, this sounds like the same business as usual.’”

Davis is also facing scrutiny related to controversial cases during her decadeslong tenure with the Atlanta Police Department, during which she served as a commander for a notorious drug enforcement unit called Red Dog. That unit disbanded in 2011, after her departure, following accusations of police brutality.

The five officers indicted in Nichols’ death all served in a special unit called SCORPION, which has drawn comparisons to Red Dog and similar elite squads faced with controversies in other cities. Memphis police quickly disbanded SCORPION after Nichols’ death. 

City leaders who spoke with The Commercial Appeal, part of the Paste BN Network, said they support the chief, but some want to see critical change moving forward.

Davis was not available for comment for this story. 

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Fresh ideas for change

Memphis has seen record crime spikes in recent years, prompting city leaders to call for bolstering the police force. 

When Davis joined in 2021, the city saw a record 346 killings as tension heightened over crime and policing. City council members at the time of her appointment hoped the new chief would bring “fresh ideas.”

“I hope everyone gives her all the support she needs, because we know the challenges of this city,”  city council member JB Smiley Jr. said in a 2021 meeting.

Among the new initiatives, Davis in late 2021 created SCORPION, officially known as the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods team, as a specialized unit of 40 officers targeting violent crime. 

Mayor Jim Strickland in his 2022 State of the City address lauded its efforts, noting its officers made 566 arrests, seized $103,000 in cash and took 253 weapons off the streets between October 2021 and January of that year.

By May 2022, Davis further ramped up the department's efforts, announcing a plan to reduce overall crime by 5% in 2022. Violent crime did see a 6% drop last year, though property crime remains on the rise.

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While leaders were touting SCORPION, experts warned of the problems with specialized units aggressively targeting communities of color in cities ranging from Los Angeles to Baltimore.

Activists say Davis should have been aware of the concerns with SCORPION from her experience with Red Dog in Atlanta. 

“People were genuinely hopeful (when she was hired),” Johnson said. “A woman, a Black woman, a mother of a Black child, that she could actually sympathize. Everyone understands police are going to police, but there was a hope that this person would be more empathetic. But within that same timeframe she was creating SCORPION.”

Controversy in Atlanta

Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs, a civil rights lawyer from Atlanta, said people who grew up in the city in the 1990s were all too familiar with Red Dog.

Formed as a tactical drug-fighting unit in the late 1980s, officers in Red Dog, which stood for Run Every Drug Dealer Out of Georgia, were known as “jump out boys” because they would jump on anyone regardless of whether they were committing a crime, Griggs said.

“They were brutal and vicious and there were many complaints about their unethical behavior,” he said. 

Griggs said he immediately thought of Red Dog when he first heard about SCORPION .

“Watching them pull over a citizen in an unmarked car in plain clothes, it immediately took me back to Red Dog,” he said. “And if they’re anything like Red Dog, then this was not the first incident.”

Davis joined the Atlanta Police Department in the 1980s when the department was working to diversify its force. She rose to deputy chief before taking the job as Durham’s chief in 2016.

She served as a special enforcement section commander over Red Dog from June 2006 to November 2007 before moving to internal affairs, according to her resume.

In that time, Atlanta PD saw one of its worst controversies when narcotics officers in November 2006 fatally shot 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during an illegal raid of her home. It was later determined officers planted drugs in her home. Three officers pleaded guilty to violating Johnston’s civil rights after failing to follow procedure and lying under oath. 

Davis was one of several high-ranking police officials named as a defendant in a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta filed by Johnston’s estate. The lawsuit said she had "supervisory and managerial" authority over the officers involved.

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The suit alleged that officers in the unit said they faced pressure from unrealistic arrest and warrant quotas and were in fear of negative repercussions, such as being transferred to a different unit, if they failed to meet their monthly numbers. 

The city in response to the allegations in court documents denied he department had “quotas,” but said it did have a performance evaluation process with monthly goals and that no officers were adversely punished if they didn’t meet those goals. The city later agreed to pay Johnston’s family a $4.9 million settlement. 

While it’s unclear whether SCORPION had performance goals or evaluations, Duane Loynes Sr., a professor of urban studies and Africana studies at Rhodes College, said Davis should have never formed the unit after what happened in Atlanta. 

“It blows my mind that Chief Davis, after going through that experience, would come to Memphis and when dealing with concerns about high crime would implement that exact same structure,” Loynes said. “Are we surprised when it does the same thing, excessive force and police brutality, that we saw with Red Dog?”

Davis saw more controversy in 2008 when she was fired from the Atlanta PD but later reinstated over a child pornography scandal involving the husband of a sergeant in the department.

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Detectives accused Davis of telling them not to investigate the case. She was fired until a civil service board reinstated her in July 2008 after finding her testimony to be credible. The police sergeant’s husband, Terrill Marion Crane, pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography.

At the time of her nomination, Strickland supported Davis and called the Atlanta incident a “bogus charge.”

Strickland was not available to be interviewed for this story.

City leaders in Durham have supported Davis in light of the Nichols case. Mark-Anthony Middleton, mayor pro tempore in Durham, in an interview with CNN said Davis worked to de-emphasize traffic stops and supported community policing. 

“If you had to handpick a leader who you would want in place under these circumstances, it would be Cerelyn Davis,” he said.

Memphis moving forward

As the city works to heal, Davis’ future in Memphis is uncertain.

City council members have voiced support for her, but several are facing term limits.

Strickland, who selected Davis for the role, also terms out this year with an election in October. Already, seven people have announced plans to seek the role of city mayor.

Easter-Thomas said she supports Davis, but the city will need to take a comprehensive look at the data and intention behind the SCORPION unit moving forward. 

“I think she’s done the best that she can, but I think it’s unfair to just look at her when there’s multiple individuals involved,” Easter-Thomas said.

City council member Martavius Jones, the lone no vote on Davis’ appointment, said at the time he was not satisfied with her answers about her firing in Atlanta and would have preferred an internal candidate.

Today, he is critical of how Davis handled releasing information about the Nichols case to the public. With a situation this volatile, the police department and city should have offered daily news conferences with space for the media to ask questions, he said, like the city did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Going forward, Jones said, he wants “to help her be successful, because she’s the police director for the city in which I live and in which I took an oath to try to help people and make this city better.”

Upon Davis’ hiring, Memphis council member Frank Colvett had “high hopes” that Davis would bring experiences and ideas from her role in Atlanta and Durham.

Memphis wanted to increase its numbers of police officers and decrease crime, but Colvett also thought Davis might bring “a change of culture.”

“She steered the ship. She and her team have been very responsive every time we’ve asked,” Colvett said. “Because of that I feel like as we go forward she should be given the chance to right the ship, because the way I see it, 1,900 police officers showed up to work today and will show up tomorrow.”

Key in what happens next with Davis’ career will be her actions over the next few weeks, said Colvett, who announced his campaign for Memphis city mayor Thursday.

“If I was Chief Davis, now is the time to lead,” Colvett said. “We’ve grieved, I don’t know we’ll ever stop grieving, but now is the time to lead.”

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.