Canadian Politics Today

All five of the former Memphis police officers charged with murder in the beating of Tyre Nichols were members of a recently created unit that was tasked with tackling rising crime in the city.

When it was launched in 2021, the SCORPION unit – Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods – was heralded as a direct response to some of the city’s worst crime, with a focus on homicides, robberies, assaults and other felonies.

Mayor Jim Strickland championed the unit, mentioning it during an address to the city in January 2022 and proudly pointing to 566 arrests – 390 of which were for felonies – and more than $103,000 in cash seized.

Yet Strickland reversed his praise on Friday in the wake of Nichols’ death, saying the SCORPION unit was made inactive pending an independent review. And on Saturday – less than a day after video of SCORPION members beating Nichols was released to the public – the Memphis Police Department announced they will “permanently deactivate” the unit.