Two of the five fired Memphis police officers accused of fatally beating Tire Nichols were hired after the department loosened its hiring requirements, highlighting concerns that police departments should not rush to fill open positions with people. which may not be qualified.
Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley joined the force in 2020 as it was experiencing severe staffing shortages and had removed the requirement that recruits have an associate’s degree or 54 college credits, according to reports.
Officers Desmond Mills, Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith were hired before the department changed its requirement in 2018 to say that recruits had to hold a full-time job for five years and complete their associate’s job within all four years, Action News 5 reported
“They are desperate. They want cops,” Mike Alcazar, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the New York Post of police departments that have eased hiring requirements. “They’re looking at it, checking a few boxes and saying, ‘Okay, they’re good enough, go ahead.’
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“Police departments need to take the process of recruiting police officers seriously and not rush to hire officers who may not be qualified,” added the retired NYPD detective.
Nichols was pulled over on January 7 for “reckless driving” and allegedly tried to run away from officers.
“While trying to detain the suspect, another confrontation occurred; however, the suspect was ultimately apprehended,” MPD said. “Afterward, the suspect complained of having difficulty breathing, at which point he was called for an ambulance.”
Body camera and streetlight footage released Friday shows a group of Memphis officers repeatedly punching Nichols as they try to restrain him.
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Nichols eventually died three days later at a hospital.
The Smoothie King Center display honors Tire Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards in New Orleans on Saturday, January 28, 2023.
(AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Police leaders have spoken out against the incident following the release of the images, including the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Patrick Yoes.
“The event as described to us does not constitute legitimate police work or a traffic stop gone awry,” Yoes said in a statement last week.
“This is a criminal assault under the pretext of the law,” Yoes added. “The Memphis Police Department has fired all five officers involved in this heinous attack. The District Attorney and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have completed the investigation, arresting the former officers and charging them with second degree murder.”
All five officers face second-degree murder charges; aggravated assault, concert act; two counts of aggravated kidnapping; two counts of official misconduct; and official oppression.
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Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills and Justin Smith were fired on January 18 for their roles in the arrest of the late Tire Nichols.
(Memphis Police Department)
Although Bean and Haley were hired in August 2020, the others forcibly joined before the reforms, according to NBC. Martin and Smith were hired in March 2018, and Mills was hired in March 2017, the outlet reported.
The department has faced personnel problems in recent years, losing 184 officers in 2021 to retirement and resignations, and reported a shortfall of 500 officers in January last year, Fox 13 previously reported.
To bolster recruiting efforts, the department announced $15,000 signing bonuses for new recruits, a $5,000 referral bonus for officers, and a retention bonus of up to 9% over five years, Action News 5 reported last year.
The department also lowered its hiring standards again, eliminating a timed physical ability test in favor of an untimed test that serves as an assessment rather than a pass or fail test, Fox 13 reported. It also lowered its education requirements again. college from 54 college credit hours to 24.
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“I don’t think he’s lowering the standards. He’s just making adjustments to fit the current generation,” Memphis Police Association president Lt. Essica Cage told Fox 13 at the time.
Protesters gather during a protest in New York City’s Times Square on Saturday, January 28, 2023 in response to the death of Tire Nichols.
(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Lowering hiring standards at police departments has become increasingly common since 2020, when Black Lives Matter and activists called for police departments across the country to be defunded following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Anti-police sentiment has prompted cops from coast to coast to resign en masse or retire, while recruiting efforts have stalled for many departments as potential employees seek less dangerous and controversial career paths.
In addition to Alcazar, other former and current officers have spoken out against lowering hiring standards for police departments, advising the various forces considering such plans to carefully weigh the decision.
Protesters gather in Times Square on Saturday, January 28, 2023, in New York, in response to the death of Tire Nichols.
(AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“It goes way beyond college. We are talking about lowering the standards of prior criminal conduct for prior drug use. These things need to be looked at very, very carefully,” Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Joe Gamaldi told News Nation Now in March.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said last year that being a police officer “has gotten a lot more demanding, complicated, sophisticated” and that “you need to hire the best and the brightest.”
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Departments across the country have made changes amid staffing problems. The Chicago police department announced last year that it would waive its 60 college credit hour requirement in favor of three years of experience in certain career fields to attract more recruits. The New Orleans Police Department also revised its hiring process last year, as the city was ravaged by a sky-high homicide rate not seen in decades, to include civilians and people who have used marijuana in the last year.
Other cities grappling with staff shortages, such as Seattle, have resisted relaxing hiring requirements, and Police Chief Adrián Díaz said last year that the force “will not hire just anyone” to fill the positions.
“Despite our current staffing crisis, this is not a numbers game. Our mission is simply to help people, which is why we will hire only the most compassionate, dedicated and qualified employees,” he said at the time.
Protesters in Atlanta, Georgia, observe a moment of silence during a rally against the fatal police assault on Tire Nichols on January 27, 2023.
(Cheney Orr/AFP via Getty Images)
The five former Memphis police officers are scheduled to appear for a bail arraignment on February 17, according to court documents.
Memphis police did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about its recent changes to hiring requirements.
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Fox News’ Adam Sabes and David Spunt contributed to this article
