Is the Answer to Crime More Cops? [themarshallproject.org]

Alicia Doktor 2/14/194:00 AM

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE — Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland took office in 2016 vowing to fight the city’s high violent crime rate by beefing up a dwindling police force. His most novel idea: use an advisory body, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, to funnel anonymous private donations from the city’s elite to reward cops who remain on the force.

His wish list, dubbed the “Blue Sky Strategy” and outlined in emails obtained by The Marshall Project, was ambitious: $48.2 million, including $12.7 million to subsidize housing and private school tuition for police families and $8 million for take-home cars.

So far the fund has channeled $6.1 million into the city budget, most of it for police retention bonuses. FedEx, International Paper and about a dozen other private entities are now subsidizing public safety in a big American city.

[For more on this story by SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM and WENDI C. THOMAS, go to https://www.themarshallproject...-to-crime-more-cops?]

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