Cerelyn C.J. Davis will likely be the Memphis Police Department s new director. Davis, the current police chief in Durham, North Carolina, would be the first woman to lead the department and the first outsider brought in to lead it in decades.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced Davis as his nominee Monday morning.
Davis was a late addition to the field of finalists to replace outgoing MPD Director Mike Rallings. She was not among the first seven finalists announced for the job, but, after those finalists were interviewed, her name was added to the list and she was interviewed two weeks ago.
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They fear it will make it even harder to get weapons out of the hands of convicted abusers. So much so that Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk had hoped to be carved out of the new law.
“We will see some disastrous consequences from the expansion of the percentage of the population that will have weapons on them at all times,” says Funk.
Especially for domestic violence, which according to him already comprises half of all violent crime in Nashville.
“We have had a number of domestic violence-related killings, and many of those, probably most of those are gun-related,” says Funk.
Background breakdown underway on MPD Director finalists
Background breakdown on 7 MPD Director finalists By Janice Broach | March 11, 2021 at 10:23 PM CST - Updated March 11 at 10:23 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - After a search conducted by the International Chiefs of Police the same group that led the search in 2016, here are the 7 finalists.
Joel Fitzgerald, who has served as police chief in several cities. According to our NBC affiliates in Texas and California Joel Fitzgerald was fired from his job in Fort Worth, Texas in 2019, but has since won an appeal to be honorably discharged. He is currently working in Waterloo, Iowa.
7 candidates under consideration for MPD director
7 candidates under consideration for MPD Director By Arianna Poindexter | March 11, 2021 at 5:50 PM CST - Updated March 11 at 5:50 PM
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The search for the next Memphis Police Director is heating up as the City of Memphis released the names of seven finalists in a nationwide search.
The search is being conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), which was the same group that led the search in 2016.
Finalists include three internal candidates with the Memphis Police Department and include Deputy Chief Sharonda Hampton, Deputy Chief Samuel Hines and Deputy Chief Michael Shearin.