FY 2001 Successes

FY 2001-2002 Successes

The Memphis Shelby Crime Commission

Please also see:
2002-2003 Successes
2000-2001 Progress Report

Thoughtfully broker, coordinate, and engage in selected strategic community partnerships that enhance the local criminal justice system until those partnerships are firmly established — then disengage.

Memphis Housing Authority Strategic Planning Initiatives

Leadership/Authorship/Participation in City-Wide Strategic Planning Process at the request of the Executive Director, City of Memphis Housing and Community Development

Leadership Role in the Creation and Oversight of the Shelby County Criminal Justice System Coordinator Office at the invitation of Shelby County

Memphis/Shelby County Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Committee Chairmanship, at the invitation of Shelby County and the City of Memphis

Host, Subject Matter Architect and Moderator for the National Conference on Corporate-Community Partnerships for Public Safety in association with Summit Training International

National Campaign Against Youth Violence in collaboration with the Office of the National Campaign Against Youth Violence, a response to the White House Summit on Children and Responsibility

Memphis Mentoring Partnership, in collaboration with Memphis 2005, Federal Express, the City of Memphis and The Partnership for Preparing a Regional Workforce (the latter led by Southwest Tennessee Community College)

Subject Matter Expert/Coordinator of a Downtown Public Safety and Security Strategic Plan, at the request of the Center City Commission

Engage regularly, on a tactical basis, with the community and the criminal justice system as crime, public safety and relationships require.

Author/Advocate, "Talking Paper on Law Enforcement Accreditation for the Memphis Police Department," at the request of Director Walter Crews, leading to MPD decision in summer 2002 to pursue national accreditation

Architect/Facilitation of Strategic Plan for Metropolitan Gang Unit at the request of the Director, Memphis Police Department

Law Enforcement Coalition, providing technical assistance and support to the anti-gang initiative, Operation Courage.

Leadership and Coordination of Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiatives (SACSI), a local effort to reduce sexual assault, with its origin in a partnership with the US Department of Justice and the US Attorney’s Office

Support to the Truancy Assessment Center through the Truancy Prevention Initiative and membership on the Truancy Assessment Advisory Committee

Consultation and Advice Regarding Public Safety Features/Planning for the Peabody Place Entertainment District, at the request of Belz Enterprises

Research Support to Memphis Police Department and Memphis City Council Regarding the Employment of Photo Enforcement Technology for Traffic Control at the invitation of the Police Director and City Council

Membership/Advisory Role, Fair Housing Advisory Panel, City of Memphis, at the invitation of Mayor W.W. Herenton

Binghamton Weed and Seed Committee, in association with the City of Memphis Division of Public Services.

Shelby County Jail Mental Health Committee, Member

Leadership Council, Early Childhood Prevention Collaborative, in association with the National Campaign Against Youth Violence.

Partner in Operation Safe Neighborhoods, at the request of the U.S. Attorney's office and the office of the District Attorney General.

Resources permitting, respond to time-sensitive community requirements for expertise, context and advocacy regarding crime and fear

Consultation and advice regarding public safety features/planning for Peabody Place Entertianment Center, at the request of Belz Enterprizes

Team Leadership for the national law enforcement accreditation on-site assessment of the New Orleans Police Department, at the request of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Fairfax, Virginia; the pursuit of and preparation for national accreditation that the New Orleans Police Department undertook is a model for the Memphis Police Department and particularly so because of the striking similarities in the communities and the challenges they face (Michael J. Heidingsfield as team leader)

Host and Convening Authority, on behalf of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, for a county-wide highway safety roundtable, at the request of Reece and Associates, a public affairs law firm in Atlanta, Georgia (second in an annual series)

Host and Facilitator, Truancy Retreat, at the request of District Attorney General William Gibbons

Civic Index Committee, assessing the process by which the community engages in collaborative problem-solving to address critical issues.

Participation in Project Triangle, an initiative of the Police Executive Research Forum to provide violence de-escalation strategies to the Israeli National Police and their regional counterparts

Ongoing crime analysis and intervention support to Kellogg's and adjacent neighborhoods, at the request of the Airways Lamar Business Assocaition

Co-authorship, final report on city-wide safety and security issues and planning

Continue to research, build and measure best practices in criminal justice as required for community safety.
Controlling Prostitution: A Multi-Modality Approach (Summer 2002)

Publication of "Process Reengineering Assessment of the Memphis Police Academy Cadet Recruitment Process" for the Memphis Police Department

The Role of Technology in Supporting Police Pursuits (Published April 2001)

Best Practice Number Ten: Fixing Broken Windows— Strategies to Strengthen Housing Code Enforcement and Related Approaches to Community-Based Crime Prevention in Memphis (Published April 2001)

Center for Community Criminology and Research (drafted), in partnership with the University of Memphis and the Plough Foundation

Community Safety Information System (CSIS), in partnership with the US Department of Justice

Mid-South Training Institute, in partnership with the University of Memphis

Best Practice Number Twelve: An Examination of Law Enforcement Consolodation in the United States (underway - Summer 2002)

White Paper: Public Safety in Public Housing in Memphis: A Police Service Merger Alternative (March 2002)

Related to the Four Guiding Principles:

Grants under Development, Submitted/Pending, or Approved

Status Source of Funding Amount Requested

Approved National Institute of Corrections $150,000

Parental incarceration, and the offenses and arrests that precede it, cause chaos and trauma in the life of a child. Children with parents in prison are likely to suffer a wide range of negative emotions and experiences leading to a higher risk for truancy, early pregnancy and delinquency. The Crime Commission’s goal in taking on this project is to create a comprehensive, community-wide coordinated effort to intervene in the lives of children with imprisoned parents in ways that will mitigate the risk factors in their lives and help them build resilience and the ability to become successful adults.

Approved Workforce Investment Network $127,000

These funds are restricted to implementation to the Memphis Mentoring Partnership. The goal of the Memphis Mentoring Partnership I to create the infrastructure, support systems, standards and awareness required for every youth in need in the Memphis Area to be able to have a caring, committed adult involved in their life.

Pending Hyde Family Foundations $150,000

Using its formidable convening authority, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission is proposing to implement a community-wide strategic planning process to eradicate and prevent blight and help restore neighborhoods. Such a process would necessarily involve a baseline inventory of problem properties, beginning with the neighborhoods targeted by the Hyde Family Foundations. Concurrent with the development of a targeted baseline inventory, and with participation from other agencies involved in prevention and eradication of blight and expanding the supply of affordable housing, the Crime Commission will undertake a city-wide strategic planning process to review existing policies and procedures, design problem-solving strategies, recommend changes to existing statutory authority as necessary, set priorities, and develop an action plan that would reflect consensus priorities, formulate objectives and action steps, assign responsibilities for various aspects of the plan, and set benchmarks and timetables. Notification should occur by November 30, 2001.

Approved Assisi Foundation $75,000

To ensure access to data by planners, researchers, and administrators, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission established the Criminal Justice Information Center (CJIC). Building upon the Community Safety Information System, a platform provided by the federal government under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative, Phase I of CJIC has been developing a countywide information system. This innovative system will be capable of providing improved criminal justice information-sharing and data analysis to local stakeholders responsible for law enforcement, courts, prosecution, public defense, corrections, probation and parole immediate access to information necessary for the development of strategies and programs responding to criminal activity. This grant, due summer 2002 is in its third and final period of funding.

Approved Plough Foundation $750,000

The newly developed Center for Community Criminology and Research, a collaborative project between faculty from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, provides research support, evaluation services, consulting on program design and implementation, and training to criminal justice agencies and community organizations in the Mid-South region. This funding requests will target two critical needs: (1) ensuring continued analytic/research support for Crime Commission projects and initiatives requiring specific data collection and analysis and (2) development of a local annual victimization survey for the Memphis and Shelby County area.

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