4 officers charged with murder are decertified : NPR

This combination of images provided by the Memphis Police Department shows (left to right) former police officers Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. A Tennessee commission voted to decertify Haley, Martin and Smith. Mills returned his certification.

Memphis Police Department via AP

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Memphis Police Department via AP

This combination of images provided by the Memphis Police Department shows (left to right) former police officers Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. A Tennessee commission voted to decertify Haley, Martin and Smith. Mills returned his certification.

Memphis Police Department via AP

A Tennessee commission voted on Friday to decertify three former Memphis police officers charged with murder in the death of Tire Nichols, preventing them from going to work at other Tennessee law enforcement agencies. The commission also endorsed a former officer’s decision to relinquish his certification.

The three former officers — Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — will be notified of the decision by the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission (POST) and given 30 days to appeal or plead. comply with it. Desmond Mills Jr. returned his certification but maintains his innocence, as do the other officers.

At an informal hearing Thursday, Memphis Police Department investigator Monique Williams recommended their decertification, saying they were “found to have breached personal conduct, truthfulness, dereliction of duty , excessive unnecessary force” and other violations.

Most states have a decertification process, which prevents officers with a history of misconduct from returning to work in the jurisdiction that certified them. However, decertified officers can and still do get out-of-state police jobs. There is no federal database of decertifications, and although there is a private national decertification index, participation is voluntary.

Three other former officers investigated in the 29-year-old black man’s death – Tadarrius Bean, Preston Hemphill and Dewayne Smith – will have dismissal hearings at a later date. Dewayne Smith and Hemphill have not been criminally charged.

The four decertified former officers plus Bean belonged to the now deactivated SCORPION unit. After Nichols’ death, all five were fired and charged with second-degree murder, and all five pleaded not guilty.

Dewayne Smith, a Memphis Police Department lieutenant and supervisor of the SCORPION unit, was at the scene when officers beat Nichols to death. He retired with full benefits less than a day before he was fired. The police department again asked for his decertificationand he will be summoned for a further hearing.

Nichols died Jan. 10, three days after Memphis police arrested him for suspected reckless driving. The police said he fled the scene and was taken into custody after two clashes with officers.

After his arrest Nichols complained of shortness of breath and was taken to hospital in critical condition after being brutally beaten. Nichols’ family said the beatings left him unrecognizable.

Katie Riordan, a freelance contributor to member station WKNO, contributed reporting.