The Daily

The Police Unit That Was Supposed to Keep Memphis Safe

Feb 8, 2023

Mike Baker, the Seattle bureau chief and a national correspondent for The New York Times, lends his insights on the tragic death of Tyre Nichols and the disbanded Memphis Scorpion unit. He discusses how this specialized team, initially hailed for crime reduction, became a source of community fear due to its brutal tactics. The conversation highlights the urgent need for police reform and accountability, as well as the complex challenges faced by Memphis's police leadership amidst the push for change.

32:02

Creator website

Episode guests

Mike Baker

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Rise of Sarah Lynn Davis as Memphis's New Police Chief

01:27

The similarity between the Montarius Harris and Tyree Nichols cases

01:25

Intro

5min

A New Approach to Policing in Memphis

5min

The Scorpion Unit: A Symbol of Fear

8min

Confrontations with Law Enforcement

13min

Current Events: Medical Advances, Natural Disasters, and Political Updates

3min

This episode contains descriptions of violence.

The death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, at the hands of officers in Memphis last month has intensified calls for fundamental reform in policing. Those calls were echoed yesterday by President Biden, who hosted Mr. Nichols’s parents at the State of the Union address.

Today, we hear about a Times investigation into the special team of officers, known as the Scorpion unit, that is accused of killing Mr. Nichols.

Guest: Mike Baker, the Seattle bureau chief and a national correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

For 14 months, officers from the high-profile Scorpion unit patrolled Memphis with an air of menace.
City leaders had praised the Scorpion unit as a key strategy for fighting crime. Now they are trying to assess whether it was flawed from the start.
The unit has been disbanded, but Memphis wasn’t the only city to turn to specialized police teams.

For more information on today’s episode, visit

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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