Mayor A C Wharton does not support the Memphis City Schools plan to lead its own police force, saying it is "an idea whose time has not fully arrived."
In a letter to school board president Martavius Jones -- and copied to Supt. Kriner Cash, Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and key legislators -- Wharton makes it clear he will not allow the issue to move forward.
Cash could not be reached Friday, but a school spokesman said Wharton's recommendation does not affect the school board's agenda because the issue will be decided by legislators, not the city mayor.
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A C Wharton
Kriner Cash
Wharton is pushing for a "non-political compromise" about police in the schools, offering to personally broker a deal between the school system and the Memphis Police Department.
Tennessee law does not currently allow a school district to have its own police force.
Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, an opponent of the idea, says the school-led police force faces "an uphill battle" with or without Wharton.
"I see no reason to look at taking police powers and assigning them to the security force at Memphis City Schools," said Hardaway, whose chief concerns are officer training and accountability. "If the status quo is going to shift heavily one way or the other, they have to have a pretty good reason not to go with experts whose core business is law enforcement."
In January, Wharton asked Cash and Godwin for written proposals about how they intended to provide school security.
Godwin's plan includes a separate school division, run like a precinct, with access to the "Blue Crush" strategy of using crime numbers to guide officer deployment. Pulling together the resources, including extra officers and creating student-centered programs to deter arrests, would take three years, he said.
Cash, who already oversees a $10 million security budget, including more than 70 district-paid security personnel, wants to return the 37 MPD officers currently assigned to schools and run his own 115-member force, trained in law enforcement and child development.
The district's "white paper" on the issue outlines the difference between "repression" tactics used by police officers and the prevention model he espouses for reducing