Second-degree murder. That’s the charge Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy filed today against all five former Memphis police officers involved in the death of Tyre Nichols. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith each face counts of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. They turned themselves in this morning.
Tomorrow evening, the City of Memphis will release body camera footage of the January 7 traffic stop that killed Nichols. The city has scheduled the release for approximately 6 p.m. Central time, after the close of business, after rush hour, after most people are home from work. That timing is deliberate. Everyone in city government who has seen the footage has described it with the same word: horrifying.
Memphis is getting ready for what comes after.
What Those Who’ve Seen the Footage Are Saying
The Nichols family viewed the body camera footage earlier this week at the invitation of city officials. RowVida Nichols, Tyre’s mother, reportedly had to leave the room before the video finished. Ben Crump, the family’s attorney, told reporters the footage shows “an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating” of Nichols for approximately three minutes after officers caught up with him following a foot chase.
Crump compared the footage to the 1991 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, a comparison that carries enormous weight. The King footage, captured by a bystander with a camcorder, triggered days of civil unrest that killed 63 people and caused over a billion dollars in property damage. Crump said the Nichols footage is worse.
Memphis city council members who have seen the video echoed those descriptions. Council member Martavius Jones called it “absolutely sickening.” Council Chair Patrice Robinson said it was “beyond disturbing.” Mayor Jim Strickland issued a statement urging Memphians to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully while acknowledging that the footage will provoke strong emotions.
Chief CJ Davis, in her own public comments this week, took the unusual step of saying the footage shows “acts that defy humanity.” For a sitting police chief to use that language about her own officers is almost without precedent. It tells you everything about what the country will see tomorrow night.
The City Prepares
Memphis hasn’t experienced a major civil unrest event since the protests following George Floyd’s death in May 2020. Those protests were largely peaceful here, with some property damage along Union Avenue and near the Beale Street corridor. The city was criticized at the time for a heavy-handed police response, including the use of tear gas near the I-40 bridge.
This time, officials are trying a different approach. Mayor Strickland has emphasized dialogue over deployment. The Nichols family has made repeated public appeals for peaceful protest, with Tyre’s mother saying her son would not want violence carried out in his name. Community organizations, churches, and civil rights groups across the city have been planning vigils and marches, with organizers coordinating routes and logistics with MPD.
That doesn’t mean the city isn’t also preparing for the possibility that things go wrong. I drove through downtown this afternoon, and several businesses along Main Street and Second Street were putting plywood over their windows. A restaurant owner near Court Square told me she was closing early tomorrow and wouldn’t reopen until Monday. The Shelby County courthouse has adjusted its security posture for the weekend. FedExForum, which doesn’t have a Grizzlies game scheduled until next week, will have additional security on its perimeter.
The National Guard has not been activated, and city officials have not requested assistance from the governor’s office. That could change quickly if tomorrow’s protests escalate.
Security Companies Are Getting the Calls
Here’s where this story intersects directly with the private security industry.
Since Monday, when word spread that the footage would be released this week and charges were likely, security companies across Memphis have seen a spike in call volume from commercial clients. The requests follow a predictable pattern: businesses want extra guards for Friday evening through Sunday. They want visible, uniformed presence at their storefronts, parking lots, and loading areas. They want someone to answer the phone if something happens and MPD is busy responding to protests.
Several companies are scrambling to fill these short-notice contracts. Allied Universal, the largest security provider in the country, has the roster depth to absorb surge demand. They’ve been fielding requests from national retail chains with Memphis locations, according to industry contacts. Phelps Security, the family-owned Memphis firm at 4932 Park Avenue, is in a similar position. After six decades in this market, they have the relationships and the reputation to attract clients during a crisis.
Smaller operators are facing a tougher situation. Shield of Steel, the veteran-owned company based at 2682 Lamar Avenue, has been getting calls from businesses along the Lamar corridor and in South Memphis. The company, established in 1998 and staffed with former law enforcement and military personnel, can deploy armed officers with fast response times. That’s a real advantage when clients need coverage by Friday afternoon. The constraint is capacity. A smaller firm with a tighter roster has less room to absorb a sudden surge in demand without pulling guards from existing posts. Business owners calling today may be told that weekend-only coverage isn’t available.
That’s the tradeoff with smaller security companies in general. You get more personal service, faster decision-making, and officers who know the neighborhoods. You may not get a dozen extra guards on 48 hours notice. Companies like Allied Universal or Securitas can usually make those numbers work. Whether they can match the local knowledge and responsiveness of a Memphis-based operator is a different question.
The bottom line for business owners trying to secure extra coverage this weekend: start calling now if you haven’t already. Don’t assume your existing security provider has capacity for additional hours. Have a backup provider’s number ready.
The Bigger Picture
Tomorrow’s footage release will not be the end of this story. It will be the beginning of a new phase.
Criminal proceedings against five former officers on second-degree murder charges will take months. Grand jury proceedings, pretrial motions, potential trials. The legal process will keep this case in the news for most of 2023 and possibly longer. Every hearing will remind Memphis of what happened on January 7.
The SCORPION unit’s future is an open question. Chief Davis hasn’t announced plans to disband it, but the political pressure to do so is building. If the unit survives the week, it will do so with a cloud over every traffic stop and warrant service its remaining officers conduct. If it’s disbanded, the neighborhoods where it operated will see a reduction in the kind of aggressive enforcement that, regardless of your opinion on its effectiveness, kept some criminals off the streets.
Memphis is also going to have a longer conversation about policing philosophy. The SCORPION model, putting officers in high-crime areas with a mandate to be assertive, has produced both results and consequences. The Nichols case is the most extreme consequence imaginable. Whether the city can find a policing approach that reduces crime without producing incidents like this one is a question that won’t be answered in 2023. It might not be answered in this decade.
For now, Memphis waits. The plywood is going up on Beale Street. The security guards are getting their shift assignments for the weekend. And somewhere in the city offices, a technician is preparing to upload the video files that will show the world what happened to Tyre Nichols on a Saturday night in January.
Tomorrow, everyone will know. What Memphis does with that knowledge will define this city for years.