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The city’s murder rate was soaring and residents were clamoring for action when the Memphis Police Department announced a new anti-violence unit with a fearsome name.
“MPD’s New SCORPION UNIT Launched!” read a post on the department’s Facebook page in November 2021, along with a video clip showing a group of officers in tactical vests at a roll call.
The name stands for the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.
Now it’s known for inflicting deadly violence on one of the city’s residents.
Authorities confirmed Thursday that officers from Scorpion were among those responsible in the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a Jan. 7 traffic stop.
“The Scorpion unit was involved,” Shelby County, Tennessee, District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Thursday at a news conference where he announced murder charges against five officers.
The attack on Nichols, which Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis has called “heinous, reckless and inhumane,” has increased scrutiny of the city’s reliance on specialized units to suppress violent crime. This “hot spot” approach has been used by cities around the country — but some police reform advocates have said it contributes to use of force and weakens public trust.
This week, Davis announced a review of all of the police department’s specialized units, including Scorpion, in response to Nichols’ death. The police department declined to comment further on the Scorpion unit Thursday.
Nichols, 29, died Jan. 10, three days after the traffic stop in Memphis’ Hickory Hill neighborhood for alleged reckless driving, authorities said. A confrontation followed, which led to Nichols’ getting pepper-sprayed and running from officers before he was beaten, Mulroy said.
City officials said a video of the beating would be released to the public after 6 p.m. Friday.
Memphis’ Scorpion unit was created in October 2021 under the police department’s Organized Crime Unit. Made up of 40 officers divided into four 10-member teams, the unit was tasked not only with addressing violent crime, but also with investigating car thefts and gangs.
