MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Memphis City Council members want more answers about an audit of the Memphis Police Department's Organized Crime Unit and unreported MPD memos.
They were not happy about the audit's reported complaints of missing and unaccounted ammunition and money being spent on things that weren't allowed.
Councilwoman Wanda Halbert said, "I love my city, but I'm frightened … I mean, I am frightened. I mean, this is scary."
The audit has been sent to the FBI, and that is a good thing according to some council members. They think current director Toney Armstrong is doing a good job, but they want to make sure problems are fixed quickly.
"I respect them a great deal and I'm a huge fan of the work they do. They have brought down crime," said Councilman Lee Harris. "But, we need answers when it comes to control over ammunition and conflicts of interest and other things like that."
That led the council to the mysterious memo issue. Cops said they found more than 70,000 memos written by officers, and that many of them should have been crime reports. In other words, cops weren't reporting crimes.
Now they say the questionable memos were all for non-violent crimes, and they didn't find that many troubles.
Councilman Jim Strickland said the damage has already been done.
"At least some portion of the public now thinks the crime figures were wrong. And now, what we've learned today, is that it's twenty percent of one out of every 15 memos, which is an extraordinarily small number and its non violent crimes," said Councilman Jim Strickland.
Police Director Toney Armstrong said he was simply talking about the information he had at the time. He told council members that it was too early to determine just how much crime rate numbers will change because of the memos, but says it won't do much to change the 26 percent drop in violent crime in Memphis over the last five years.
