MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - Drunk driving and kilos of cocaine. With two Memphis cops arrested within days of each other, Memphians are losing faith in the men and women in blue.
It seems like bad cops are coming out of the woodwork. The President of the Memphis Police Association, Michael Williams, said cops behind bars is nothing new - it's just coming to light in Memphis.
"A couple years ago we had the same thing happen; the FBI came in and did a 'Tarnished Blue' incident as they were arresting officers involved in activities that aren't conducive to being a police officer," he said. "Everybody's not geared to be a police officer. For those that aren't, they don't need to be here. The majority of the officers for MPD are hard workers, they're honest and they want to do their job."
But Memphians aren't so sure.
"Police officer caught with cocaine? They're supposed to be helping us," said Memphis resident Michael Parker. "I don't want to speak about all of them, some of them think they can abuse their authority… they do whatever and get away with it."
"Do I trust them? To a point," said Kim Ly. "They have some officers that's good, some but not all of them."
Memphian Tim Thompson noted, "They've lowered their requirements; it's so hard to get policemen, sometimes you get some bad elements in there… but it will come around."
Williams said the arrests are good and bad, and will eventually lead to a better department.
"I'm very discouraged when I see officers that are under investigation," Williams said. "We come on and we want to see the best in everybody, but everybody's not cut out to be police officers. But at the same time it's a good thing what Director Armstrong is doing because the citizens deserve to have the best protection."
Williams also said if the city continues to take benefits from officers, it will push the good ones out and won't attract the right caliber of candidates.
