The Memphis Police Department is under fire after it was revealed that the standard to join the ranks of police officers had been lowered in the past.
The news comes on the heels of the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols last month and as crime across the city surges. Not only were standards lowered but the department offered incentives in the form of signing bonuses up to $15,000 to encourage people to join the force.
It was also reported that the department provided $10,000 in relocation allowances. Previously, candidates had to have military service, previous experience in policing, or college credit but those qualifications were rolled back.
"They would allow just pretty much anybody to be a police officer because they just want these numbers," Alvin Davis, former lieutenant ini charge of recruiting at the Memphis Police Department, told the Associated Press.
The department had apparently grown desperate to fill hundreds of vacant positions, particularly as more officers quit.
More than 1,350 have quit over the last decade. As a result, the MPD considered hiring applicants with criminal histories. The police academy lowered its timing requirements during physical tests and removed the running portion of its training program because most recruits failed.
"If you lower standards, you can predict that you're going to have problems because we're recruiting from the human race," Ronal Serpas, the former head of police in Nashville and New Orleans, told the AP.
SNOO Sleeper Inventor on Calm Inducing Tech For Babies
How to Prepare For Your First Group Cycling Session
A former Minneapolis police officer who held back bystanders while his colleagues restrained a dying George Floyd has been convicted of aiding and abetting manslaughter.
Barbie is honoring Hollywood trailblazer Anna Mae Wong to kick off Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Wong, the latest figure to get a doll in Barbie's "Inspiring Women Series,'' is considered the first Asian-American star in Hollywood history.
An Oklahoma woman has identified four of the seven people found dead during a search for two missing teens as her daughter and three grandchildren.
Wildlife and environmental groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday over SpaceX’s launch last month of its giant rocket from Texas.
Nearly five years after a stretch limousine packed with birthday revelers careened down a hill and off a road in rural upstate New York, killing 20 people, the operator of the company that rented out the vehicle is going on trial.
Oklahoma on Monday became the latest state to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors as Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that makes it a felony for health care workers to provide children with treatments that can include puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.
In a New York Times op-ed, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote that the U.S. needs to focus on its "epidemic of loneliness," and that half of Americans are lonely — including himself.
King Charles III, keen to show that he can be a unifying figure for everyone in the United Kingdom, will be crowned in a ceremony that will for the first time include the active participation of faiths other than the Church of England.
