MPD Finds Thousands of Unreported Memos

Memphis, Tn - Memphis Police Chief Toney Armstrong says officials have discovered thousands of memos containing crimes that were left out of official statistics. He's calling the mistake a "gross oversight."

The 79,000 memos were written by police officers from 2006 through July 2011.

This discovery is now casting doubt on the 15% drop the department reported in serious crime in Memphis under former MPD Director Larry Godwin.

Memphis Police Assoc. President Michael Williams says he wasn't aware of the large number of unfiled police memos but says he's not surprised. He says they've questioned MPD leaders in the past, on statements of reduced crime while there's reported high call volume. Williams says officers write the memos, the problem is with those at the top.

"Individuals are going to say, 'officers come to the scene,' they did, they did their job, they did their part, what happens after they leave they're going to another call, because the call load is up, so it's incumbent on the individuals that are over them to see that those reports get to where they're supposed to get too," said Williams.

Williams says after an officer writes a memo, the lieutenant is responsible for checking the memo and the memo is also forwarded to the proper unit. He says the lieutenant is the "first line supervisor" who is responsible for approving the officer's reports. Williams notes the lieutenant is carrying out orders from "the higher ups."

On any given shift, he says a lieutenant oversees six to 30 officers.

Armstrong apologized to all of the potential victims in the cases. He says they sampled 20,000 memos from 2010, and says 3 out of every 15 memos should have been upgraded to a report. That means some criminals got away scot-free.

When asked who's to blame, Armstrong said, "I won't say who's to blame if there's a particular person to blame, or a group of people to blame, I basically say MPD is to blame."

Some officers that Fox 13 spoke with said that they are not surprised by the number. They said many times officers will respond to situations, domestic violence calls for instance, and find that the caller does not want to press charges or there is not enough evidence to file a report. The officers still file a memo to document that there was a response to the call.