City Council Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank you, I just wanted a general comment. As we talk about the Memphis SAIT project, most of what we're talking about there is activity that had been done by our police department, is that correct? Okay, and it's not arrests that have been made by the National Guard, and it does not include anything that ICE has done, correct?

Yeah, can you go back to that slide that says Memphis Safe Operation? I don't know who's managing the...

There you go, that one. Of these arrests, over 21,000, who made those, Chief Davis?

The firearms recovered, who recovered those?

I'm just making sure because they're labeled as Memphis Safe. The warrants, were these served by Memphis Police Departments?

These warrant numbers, were these Memphis Police Department?

So to Councilman Warren's point, none of these vehicles recovered, currency recovered, the drugs recovered on the following page, none of that was done by the National Guard or ICE.

Thank you. I just I ask you this every time because there are other people that get on the news that are elected officials and they continue to take credit for your good work. And they continue to say that the efforts that were added were. what made this happen. Now, we've had this conversation before, but I want to say it again. What you have seen most beneficial to being able to actually present these kinds of numbers to us is adding the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Those additional supports have been the most helpful, correct?

because they're able to take care of the wrecks and the speeding on the highways, and then you're able to go into the communities and actually do the arrests. I have one other question on your recruitment. I'm excited to see these new classes coming through with 125 about to graduate, 150 coming starting in January, and we're getting close to 2000. What is the preferred complement at this point?

Next class that has 150 in it, I know there will be some attrition, but we'd be getting really close to that.

Getting really close in 2027 to that 2300 number. Yes. All right. Thank you, Chair. I have nothing further.

Thank you, Chair. And thank you for being here for your presentation. I asked the last time you all were here. What are we doing to shore up things so that when they leave, we will be in a better place than we have been in the past? And I asked about you all working with nonprofits and churches and different ones. to offset them the safe task force leaving just to make sure that we're doing what we need to do in the community to keep everyone healthy and safe even as they leave because i am beginning to see people kind of driving sporadically on the interstate again and i don't want to go ther

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair. Colleagues, so this, my colleague and I, Councilwoman Cooper-Sudden, on last council meeting three weeks ago, we sat and we, I guess we're engaged in, not just listened to, but we're engaged in different reports from a sector of our community that were horribly treated and still dealing with the ramifications of that said raid one of two, which some of those folks we had with us engaging us in what really happened, bless you, and how they are trying or attempting to deal with it moving forward. With that being brought to our current attention, And it also be

Um, and my colleague would also like to speak to Councilwoman Cooper.

Thank you, Chairman. At the last council meeting, let me be very clear. Children came to the mic. As I was sitting there listening to the children, and then I reflect back to the 25 year old who came to the MAG, who is taking care now of her siblings. I reflect back to my 98 year old grandmother who is still living and she grew up in the Jim Crow era. I reflect back to the trauma that when parents are being snatched away from their children, that black and brown folk had suffered, not just in 2026, but long before then. It's the same playbook. When I reflect and I hear the stories, and those c

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When the National Guard and ICE were brought to the city, the National Guard was brought with a request from our governor, which is why I think our council did not do anything about it at the time. It was illegal. It wasn't a thing that we thought we should do. We'd sworn to uphold the Constitution. This is not a request, in my mind, saying that we have the power to send them away. I think it's a request saying we appreciate whatever thought process you had about the National Guard. Thank you very much. I think we don't need them anymore. Our police and all the other fede

Thank you, Chair. And I first would like to be added as a co-sponsor without objection. I appreciate both Councilwoman Dr. Easter-Thomas and Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton for bringing this. As this body knows and others, when the National Guard, actually before they came here, Councilman Smiley and I proposed a resolution to oppose it, and we were told it wasn't worth the money, or wasn't worth the paper it was written on. We did the same thing with ICE, knowing that at that time the law said that all of us that were sponsors were subject to felony arrest. And we were told we were grandstanding.

One of those men that was killed was one of the young men that I coached in soccer who graduated Catholic high school and was an executive rising in Hollywood feed, sitting on the corner of Hollywood and Parkway when he was struck by someone who's being pursued at high speed by ICE. Thank you.