Read Mike Rallings' plea to Memphis City Council about the city's residency requirement

In his bid to convince the Memphis City Council to put a question on the 2020 ballot that could potentially get rid of the residency requirement for new Memphis police officers, Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings wrote the city's legislative body a letter. 

The letter, obtained through an Open Records Act Request by The Commercial Appeal, touched on many of the same points Rallings has made in presentations to Council — people calling 911 don't care where someone lives as long as they show up.

He also threw cold water on the idea that those who don't live in Memphis aren't as invested in the city. 

The ordinance that would call the special election for next November is poised for a final, decisive vote on Dec. 17. 

MPD director:If Memphis wants to grow police force, remove residency requirements

You can read the full summary of his letter and the full letter below. 

MPD is in a staffing crisis and our current staffing of two thousand and ninety (2,090) commissioned officers is significantly below those required for performance of our mission.

Our goal is to have twenty-three hundred (2,300) commissioned officers by 2020. The 2014 SCS report recommended that a staffing level of approximately twenty-four hundred (2,400) commissioned officers was needed to reduce violent crime. Reducing violent crime should be our No. 1 priority, not residency. 

As a City employee, it is right and proper to expect employees to come to work on time, follow all employment rules, and perform their duties in a satisfactory and professional manner. Changing residency to one simple policy is the right thing to do, especially during a local and national police officer hiring crisis.

Employees should be able to reside outside of Shelby County, TN, as long as they can report to work within two hours of notice. This policy is already in place for nine hundred fifty-six (956) officers who were hired on or before January 3, 2005, and this policy should be in place for all officers.

We should not attempt to control employees' personal lives except if, in some way, it might impact their employment. I recognize that there are many valid reasons an employee would elect to live outside of Memphis and Shelby County.

The choice of schools, choice of community, choice of a childcare facility, a more rural lifestyle with more acreage available, a home closer to the employment location of a spouse, or a responsibility of caring for an elderly family member are among some of the reasons. year. 

Although it may be tempting to continue the residency restriction because of the potential loss of tax-based income (which would be minimal), or maybe there is a question if an employee does not live where he or she serves, they are not effective or do not care for the community.

With the residency requirements varying among our current officers, as mentioned previously, there is nothing that proves where an officer resides negatively affects his or her ability to serve our community.

Officers learn the communities they serve by patrolling and conducting community policing, but our staffing crisis severely limits our ability to conduct community policing and provide the level of service our citizens deserve. As for the potential loss of tax revenue, there is an assumption that all officers are home owners, when in fact new officers tend to live in apartments. 

As of last month, MPD' s residency report showed that eight hundred seventy-eight (878) or 42 % of all commissioned officers live in the City of Memphis. Nine hundred ninety-six (996) or 48% live outside of Memphis, but inside of Shelby County, and two hundred eight (208) or 10% live outside of Shelby County, TN.

If all two thousand eighty-two (2,082) commissioned officers lived in Memphis and owned homes, the potential tax revenue would never make up for the millions of dollars we are forced to spend on overtime each year, due to our staffing shortage and crime fighting efforts. 

Together, we must move our Department in the right direction and broaden our approach through our recruiting efforts by keeping public safety the No. 1 priority, and by dropping our outdated residency restriction.

Memphis is the only large municipality in Tennessee that has such stringent residency requirements. Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Jackson, TN, require officers to live within the state of Tennessee and are not restricted to a particular county. We should allow those who want to serve the citizens of Memphis to live where they desire in order to compete with other agencies and ensure that we are not eliminating qualified employees. 

I ask that you revise the restrictive residency requirement to allow all commissioned police officers to reside wherever they desire, within a reasonable distance that will allow officers to report/respond to their respective workstations within a timely manner. This policy already applies to forty-six percent ( 46%) of all commissioned police officers and should be applicable to all of them regardless of your hire date. 

Thank you for your consideration.