The Memphis Crime Beat has asked elected officials for help in improving transparency in the city’s justice system.
“Without data we don’t know how our systems are performing, and it’s really important that we do,” Leslie Taylor, president of Memphis Crime Beat, said during today’s meeting of the Memphis City Council’s Public Safety and Homeland Security committee. “There are lots of opportunities to improve our systems, but if we’re not identifying them, then how do we know where to begin?”
Taylor, along with Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis, discussed the work that Memphis Crime Beat is doing while also asking for help in procuring data.
The nonpartisan group was founded as a way to help citizens better understand crime in Memphis through data collection and informing citizens on crime-related policies and the judicial system.
The group analyzes data to make this information accessible for citizens. It was initially inspired by its Court Watch initiative where members observed and evaluated the application of justice in Shelby County.
“Through our Court Watch experience we started realizing how important the justice system is to reducing crime,” Taylor said. “What we didn’t realize when we started is the justice system is a huge piece of that and needs to work hand and glove with law enforcement … to reduce crime.”
She said the way they analyze the life of a crime through what they call the “crime funnel” from the time a crime is committed to when the perpetrator is sentenced. These stages also include factors such as rearrests, reoffenses, and rehabilitation.
The organization cited information from the University of Memphis that 12 percent of people who commit crimes are rearrested within 120 days, and 21 percent are arrested within 500 days.
While they were able to present this data to the council, they noted that there is an absence of data from the justice system. Taylor said law enforcement does a “reasonably good” job on collecting transparent data, but they’re in a “black hole” when it comes to other statistics.
According to the Administrative Office of the Courts, 56 percent of cases were dismissed out of 111,000 offenses. However, Taylor noted they do not have any data as to why they were dismissed. Nor is there information on rehabilitation efforts.
A report from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury on the Shelby Criminal Justice System further illustrated this need by recommending that the system “collect and publicly report data for key metrics on a regular basis.”
“There are numerous opportunities for enhancing the transparency, accessibility, and usability of aggregate data on the operations and outcomes of the Shelby County criminal justice system,” the report said.
Taylor said areas of opportunities include publishing how well judges manage their docket. She said this is a piece of information they would like to have immediately, and encouraged the council to help urge clerks to share this information.
“We know what data we need to track life of a crime through the crime funnel and we know who has it,” Taylor said. “We don’t have the authority to make people provide us with the data. We hope y’all can help us in that regard.”
Davis said they only have the information they can provide, which is available on the city’s dashboard. She called Taylor’s work invaluable since police “don’t have the manpower or time to do it.”
“We need that data to put on our dashboard about what happened in the court,” Davis said.
Councilwoman Janika White requested that Taylor provide the council with a list of missing data points needed.
“I’m an advocate for transparency and data as well, because we can’t figure out what’s working and what’s not, as well as figuring out where our gaps are,” White said.