by Phil Campbell
Now that the Memphis Police Department has an accountability plan, it falls to the precinct commanders, the field lieutenants, and the patrol officers to make the plan work.
The precinct commanders are addressing the issue differently, based on their individual resources and crime problems unique to their area. There is not much doubt, though, who bears the greatest responsibility.
"The lieutenant is the one that's really coming under the gun," says Inspector Bobby Todd, South Precinct commander. "Here we are, telling him or her to go out and make sure their officers are doing something pro-active."
For the department, the plan means shuffling a few million dollars around and pushing a few dozen 30-year captains back into the field. For the precinct commanders down to the officers on the beat, it means coming up with new ways to reduce crime.
The plan is viewed with mixed feelings. While Memphis Police Association president Lt. Steve Brown has called it "smoke and mirrors" which doesn't go far enough, others were enthusiastic. Patrol officers and lieutenants are being given a voice, says Inspector Richard Sojourner, and it marks the "first time in 31 years that the administration has sincerely asked for input."
Inspector Mike Dodd of the West Precinct, for example, is assigning lieutenants to supervise three wards each. "We've reassigned our officers to a particular territory, and they are accountable for everything that goes on over there," Dodd says.
The East Precinct, which has prioritized drugs as its major problem, is taking a two-fold attack. Some officers will cruise the streets to find high drug traffic before sending in marked officers. The precinct also recently opened a new mini-precinct, hoping to merge the theories of zero tolerance with community policing.
In the South Precinct, Inspector Todd says lieutenants and a small crew of officers will devote about two hours per shift to sweeping areas where gangs frequent. "You got people who just hang out on a corner," Todd says. "We check them for outstanding warrants, we make arrests. There are going to be more people locked up."
The North Precinct decided to crack down on gang activity, says Inspector Gil Laverne. "We are going to be doing one thing in particular -- better coordinate our information flow on gangs," he says. "We have a day-shift lieutenant who is going to coordinate that. Gang activity is so fluid, officers have to dialogue with each other."
Inspector Charles Cook, new commander of the Central Precinct, is placing the responsibility for reducing crime in that area in the hands of the watch commanders, who will create a plan for each patrol ward. "There is some latitude, but it comes down to making sure that [officers] have an assignment, making sure that an assignment is coming through," Cook says.
The biggest problem in the Central Precinct, Cook says, is automobile thefts along the Poplar Avenue corridor. He hopes to reduce the number of cars stolen in that area by as much as 8 percent in the next three months. He also says he wants to eliminate prostitution along Summer Avenue.
by Mark Jordan
AFTER ALMOST FOUR YEARS OF NEGOtiations, officials with Pat O'Brien's, the New Orleans bar famed for its Hurricane drinks and piano bar, have finally reached an agreement to open a franchise on Beale Street.
Sources close to the negotiations say that Pat O'Brien's, Inc., has signed a deal with Performa Entertainment, the company that manages the historic street, to build a bar at the corner of Beale and Hernando on the empty lot adjacent to Willie Mitchell's Rhythm and Blues Club. It is not known when the club may open. A Beale franchise would be the first Pat O'Brien's outside of New Orleans.
Performa president John Elkington has said that reaching an agreement with the New Orleans landmark was a priority before he hands over day-to-day management of the entertainment district. But already the Pat O'Brien's deal appears as if it may be the lure that draws several new clubs with national reputations to Beale. Sources say an agreement to bring a Hard Rock Cafe to Beale is likely, and that officials with the Planet Hollywood chain have visited the street in the past year. Elkington has previously said that plans to bring bluesman Buddy Guy's club to Beale were contingent upon landing Pat O'Brien's.
Efforts to bring the popular French Quarter tourist spot to Memphis began in 1993. Originally, plans called for the club to be located inside the W.C. Ellis and Sons building at Front and Linden. Last year, supporters of the club successfully lobbied Nashville for an extension of Beale Street's special-drinking-hours zone three blocks west to encompass a proposed Pat O'Brien's site near Wagner Place. The exception to state law allows all bars on Beale from Riverside Drive to Fourth Street to serve alcohol until 5 a.m., two hours past the state's regular last call.
by Phil Campbell
ACCORDING TO A STATE AUDIT, THE tiny town of Gilmore, Arkansas, is guilty of excessively ticketing motorists along Highway 63.
An auditing committee found that, in 1995, 56 percent of Gilmore's $210,887.49 budget came from speeding tickets and municipal court costs. In 1994, the town relied on fines 65 percent of the time. The results of an audit of Tyronza, also on Highway 63, were similar. Since both Gilmore and Tyronza are small towns with few streets, the majority of these fines apparently came from traffic violations along Highway 63, which links Memphis to Jonesboro and parts of northern Arkansas.
By comparison, Shelby County cities and suburbs only use speeding tickets as a small source of revenue. About 7 percent of Bartlett's annual revenue comes from speeding tickets and related fines. Speeding tickets from the Memphis Police Department account for a mere 2 percent of the city's overall budget.
The Flyer investigated Gilmore in September ("Speed Trap Blues," September 19th issue). At the time, state senator Jerry Bookout, representing Jonesboro, and the Jonesboro Sun were waging a war against the town's aggressive speeding-ticket policies. Bookout had noticed that out-of-state drivers were getting ticketed there at an alarming rate.
Two years ago, the Arkansas state legislature passed a law to punish towns that become speed traps. The bill provided that the Arkansas State Police had the authority to force communities such as Gilmore to stop issuing tickets on state highways if they made more than 30 percent of their revenue from traffic fines.
Unfortunately, the law wasn't clear enough, says Rick Hogan, the state's deputy attorney general. The state legislature is now wrestling with an amendment that will give a better definition of the word "highway." Attorney General Winston Bryant also noted in a legal opinion that it might not be fair to use 1994 audit figures to punish these towns because the speed-trap law did not exist then.
Senator Bookout, who pushed for the first law in 1995, says he feels vindicated over the results of the late-December audit. Now retired, Bookout and the Jonesboro Sun have been sharp critics of Gilmore Mayor Paul McClelland for issuing too many tickets along Highway 63.
"[McClelland] must be stepping up his activity again. In the last two weeks I must get half a dozen calls," Bookout says. "I'll call [Sun editor] Larry Fewgate to see if he wants to get after them."
by Phil Campbell
A WREATH
WAS PLACED OUTSIDE the city council offices last week in memory of Mary
Ann Mayhall Hassell, who died February 3rd of heart disease. Hassell, known
as Ann to most, worked for four years as the council receptionist after
working for eight years as the receptionist for former Memphis Mayor Dick
Hackett. She was 59.
Hassell's popularity was demonstrated by the attendance at her funeral. Hackett, who eulogized her during the service, noted that eight pews or more were filled with current and former city employees and elected officials paying their respects. Among those attending were ex-council members Jack Sammons and Florence Leffler, as well as current council members Joseph Ford, Barbara Swearengen Holt, and Pat Vander Schaaf. Council member Brent Taylor's funeral home provided services.
Callers to the city council office knew Ann by her pleasant voice and her signature welcoming line, "Council office, this is Ann!" Staffers knew her as a second mother.
"She was just a charming and delightful lady in the best sense of the term," says Lisa Geater, city council staff director. "Those who knew her loved her."
Hassell is survived by her mother, Marie Bailey Mayhall of Southaven, Mississippi; a daughter, Joni Poynter of Memphis; two sons, Wade and Wes Hassell, both of Memphis; a sister, Betty Jo Trakimas of Carmel, Indiana; a brother, Ted Mayhall of Southaven; and six grandchildren.
by Jacqueline Marino
CITY OF GOOD ABODE. AMERICA'S DIStribution Center. Birthplace of the Blues. Add to those proud slogans another one that Memphians shouldn't be too proud of: Bad Check Central. To leaders in the retail industry, bankruptcy-heavy West Tennessee is steadily becoming one of the country's capitals of bounced checks.
Some bad checks are written by mistake, when a shopper hasn't kept track of a checking account and the bank reports "insufficient funds." Some, though, are forged. Others are counterfeit. Whatever the reason for their existence, merchants hate them.
"Worthless checks and fraudulent checks are the same as shoplifting," says Dale Masten, president of the Tennessee Council of Retail Merchants. "When retailers incur a loss, they must pass it on. They do that through higher prices." Merchants lose between $3 and $8 in employee time and other costs every time they try to collect on one bad check.
The Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff's Department issue more than a thousand warrants each year for people who have written bad checks, but those represent just a fraction of the actual number of bad checks written. Merchants file complaints with law-enforcement officers only after their efforts to locate bad-check writers, as well as the efforts of collection agencies, have failed. Local collection agencies are convinced their jobs are tougher than others across the country. Susan Palmetter, vice president of the national check-verification and recovery firm Checkcare Systems, says West Tennessee is one of the largest bad-check-writing areas in the nation for her firm.
Grocery and department stores here can show you why.
"Out of 104 grocery stores [nationwide], over 80 percent of bad-check losses are from eight stores in the Memphis area," says David Eller, vice president of loss prevention for Jitney Jungles, Inc., the company that owns Megamarkets. He says the losses are "horrendous," estimated to be in excess of $100,000 each year.
To curb the problem, Jitney Jungles recently worked with the state retail council on legislation that would enable district attorneys' offices in Shelby and Davidson counties to issue their own warrants for bad-check writers. Merchants would then be able to bypass the check-collection agencies. The special "worthless check divisions" -- similar to what have been instituted in Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas -- would pay for themselves because the DA's office can collect fees from the perpetrators.
Besides the people who write bad checks, though, another victim of the legislation would be check-collection companies, whose services probably wouldn't be needed anymore. Realizing this, Masten says the retail council decided Monday to withdraw its support for the legislation.
"Collectors do a good job collecting bad checks and we don't want to be in the business of putting people out of business," he says. Incidentally, some check collectors are members of the retail association.
Merchants are bound to be disappointed. Not only could the DA's office have helped them recover their losses, it could have deterred habitual crooks, who find out the law isn't as easy to evade as the check collectors, says Rodney Faulk, a Shelby County assistant district attorney who helped write the legislation.
Milwaukee Bucks point guard Elliot Perry visited Memphis last weekend as he enjoyed a few days off during the NBA All-Star break. After watching his alma mater beat Louisville 79-59 at The Pyramid, Perry visited with U of M coach Larry Finch outside the Tiger locker room. Perry was the first of three point guards from Treadwell High School who played for Finch at Memphis. The other two are NBA all-star Anfernee Hardaway and current Tiger Chris Garner.