Half of Memphis Police Department vehicles awaiting maintenance, union leader says

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As the Memphis Police Department works to fight crime, they have a shortage of officers, and also a shortage of cars.

Sgt. Matt Cunningham, President of the Memphis Police Association, says 50% of their fleet is not in rotation, with about 170 awaiting maintenance.

“We get in high-speed situations, we drive the cars hard to respond or a pursuit,” Cunningham said. “If an officer is tied up at a crime scene the officer waiting for a car is just waiting on that car to come, it’s another obstacle that we are trying to overcome.”

This comes after the same visual being seen over and over — wrecked police cars. Thursday afternoon a Police Truck was left wrecked in Whitehaven, a wrecked cruiser after a chase was left crashed back in May, and even a police car was towed in April.

“I got a report there are 37 cars assigned to Crump and only 13 are running. I want to know how I can help you with this,” said Councilwoman Green in a recent City Council meeting.

Interim Chief CJ Davis told City Council this week that due to repairs, there are simply not enough patrol cars.

“Sometimes officers don’t want to put a car in for routine maintenance because they are afraid they won’t get their car back,” Davis said.

City Council suggests increasing MPD’s event fees for more money for their fleet. However, Cunningham says this issue started during the pandemic with supply chain issues.

This could possibly lead to slower response times for crime.

CJ Davis says an audit on the entire MPD feet is underway now.

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