On July 27, the Department of Justice announced a pattern-or-practice investigation into the Memphis Police Department. I’ve covered law enforcement in this city for close to two decades, and I can tell you the announcement surprised nobody who’d been paying attention. What did catch people off guard is how fast private security companies started feeling the aftershocks.
Three months in, the investigation is already reshaping how security gets done across Shelby County. I’ve spent the last several weeks talking to company owners, property managers, and security directors about what’s changed since summer. The short answer: almost everything.
The Investigation and Its Reach
For anyone just catching up, here’s where things stand. The DOJ is looking at MPD’s use of force, its practices around stops, searches, and arrests. This comes roughly six months after the death of Tyre Nichols and the disbanding of the SCORPION unit in January. Police Chief CJ Davis has said the department will cooperate fully, and city officials have signaled support for reform. The City Council has been discussing ordinances that would ban unmarked cars for traffic enforcement, among other changes.
None of this is happening in a vacuum. MPD has around 1,900 sworn officers right now, and that number hasn’t been enough for years. Officers are stretched thin, response times have crept up in certain districts, and the department is trying to maintain normal operations while an outside agency picks through its policies and training records.
That gap between what the city needs and what MPD can provide is where private security companies are stepping in.
The RFP Surge
I talked to the owner of a mid-size security firm based off Summer Avenue who told me his company received more requests for proposals in August and September than in the entire first half of the year. He asked that I not name his company because he doesn’t want to look like he’s profiting off the investigation, which itself tells you something about the mood in the industry right now.
“Property managers are calling us who never called us before,” he said. “They’re not panicking, exactly. They’re just nervous about what happens if MPD pulls back.”
That nervousness is real. I talked to a property management director who oversees several apartment complexes in Hickory Hill and Parkway Village. She told me she started getting pressure from ownership groups in August to add on-site security at properties that had relied entirely on MPD patrol presence. Her owners are based out of state and they’re reading the same DOJ headlines everyone else is reading.
“They don’t know the difference between what the investigation actually does and the idea that police are somehow going to stop coming,” she said. “I’ve had to explain multiple times that MPD is still responding to calls.”
She’s right. MPD is still doing its job. But the perception problem is real, and perception drives spending decisions.
Crime Hasn’t Gone Anywhere
Let’s talk numbers. Memphis is on pace for another record year of homicides in 2023. Aggravated assaults, carjackings, and property crime all remain high. The Frayser and Raleigh areas continue to see disproportionate violent crime rates, while commercial corridors in Midtown and along Poplar have dealt with a steady stream of break-ins and shoplifting.
This is the backdrop against which every security conversation in Memphis is happening. The DOJ investigation didn’t create the demand for private security. It accelerated demand that was already building.
One security consultant who works with retail clients across the metro told me she’s seen a 30 to 40 percent increase in inquiries since late July. “Retailers were already spending more on security before the investigation,” she said. “Now they’re spending faster.”
The math is straightforward. If you’re a business owner on Lamar Avenue or a restaurant operator in Cooper-Young, you need some assurance that your property is protected. If confidence in police response wavers even slightly, private security fills that gap. It doesn’t matter whether the concern is justified. What matters is that the checkbook opens.
How Companies Are Adapting
The firms winning new contracts right now aren’t just offering warm bodies at a post. The smarter operators have retooled their pitches to address specific anxieties that property managers and business owners are expressing.
I’m seeing three patterns:
Visible deterrence is the top priority. Clients want marked vehicles, uniformed guards, and physical presence. One company owner told me he’s ordered six new patrol vehicles since August because every new contract asks for dedicated vehicle patrols. “They want to see us,” he said. “The whole point is that everyone knows security is there.”
Response time guarantees are showing up in contracts. Several firms are now offering contractual response-time commitments, something that was rare in the Memphis market even a year ago. A security director at a Downtown office complex told me her new contract includes a 10-minute maximum response time for alarm activations, with financial penalties if the firm misses it.
Data and reporting have become selling points. Property managers want weekly incident reports, patrol logs with GPS verification, and monthly trend analysis they can share with owners and investors. One company I spoke with hired a data analyst in September specifically to produce these reports for clients. That’s a position that wouldn’t have existed at a Memphis security firm five years ago.
The Workforce Problem
Here’s the part nobody wants to talk about. Private security companies can land all the new contracts they want, but they still have to find people to staff them. The labor market for security guards in Memphis was tight before the DOJ announcement and it hasn’t gotten any easier.
Armed guards are particularly hard to find. Tennessee’s training requirements, while reasonable on paper, create a pipeline problem. Getting a new hire through the 48-hour unarmed training, then through armed certification, then through TDCI registration can take weeks. Companies that need people now are competing with each other for a limited pool of already-registered guards.
“I turned down two contracts in September because I didn’t have the staffing,” one company owner told me. “That’s money I left on the table because I won’t put unqualified people on a post.”
Pay rates are creeping up, too. Armed guard wages in the Memphis market have risen from the $14-16 range to $17-20 over the past year, depending on the assignment. Some overnight posts in high-crime areas are paying even more. That’s good for the workers, but it compresses margins for companies trying to compete on price.
What the Investigation Actually Means for Police Response
Let me be clear about something, because I think there’s a lot of misinformation circulating. The DOJ investigation does not mean Memphis police are going to stop responding to emergencies. It does not mean officers will refuse to make arrests. And it does not mean the department is going to be dismantled or defunded.
What it does mean is that MPD is going to face increased scrutiny on how it conducts certain operations. Officers may be more cautious about aggressive tactics. The department will likely have to implement new training, new reporting requirements, and new oversight mechanisms. All of that takes time and resources away from patrol operations at a department that’s already understaffed.
The practical effect for property managers and business owners is marginal in the near term. Over the next 12 to 18 months, though, I think we’ll see the investigation’s real impact on policing patterns in Memphis. And that’s the window private security companies are preparing for.
The Reform Conversation
The City Council has been discussing several reform proposals tied to MPD’s practices. The most prominent is a proposed ordinance banning unmarked police vehicles during traffic stops. There’s also talk about new requirements for body camera footage review and use-of-force reporting protocols.
These are reasonable reforms. They’re also the kind of changes that take bandwidth from a department that doesn’t have much to spare. Every hour spent on compliance paperwork or reform implementation is an hour not spent on patrol.
I talked to a retired MPD lieutenant who now consults for private security companies. He put it bluntly: “The department is going to be focused inward for the next couple of years. They’ll still answer 911 calls. They’re not going to be doing the kind of proactive patrol that property owners got used to.”
That assessment tracks with what I’ve heard from multiple sources inside and outside MPD.
Where This Goes
The DOJ investigation is going to take years. Pattern-or-practice investigations in other cities have lasted three to five years before producing consent decrees, and those decrees often run another five to ten years after that. Memphis is at the very beginning of a long process.
For private security companies, that timeline represents sustained demand. The anxiety driving current spending isn’t going to dissipate anytime soon. If anything, it’ll intensify as the investigation produces findings and recommendations.
The companies that will do best are the ones investing in professionalism right now. Better training. Better technology. Better reporting. The days of winning a contract just because you had the lowest bid are fading in Memphis. Clients want partners, not vendors.
I’ve been covering this industry long enough to know that surges in demand don’t always produce good outcomes. When money floods into a sector quickly, quality can suffer. I’ve already heard whispers about companies cutting corners on background checks or putting undertrained guards on posts to meet demand.
That’s the real risk here. Not that private security can’t fill the gap MPD is leaving. It can. The risk is that it fills the gap badly, and that the same communities already underserved by police end up underserved by the security companies that were supposed to help.
Memphis deserves better than that. Three months into this investigation, the industry has a chance to prove it can deliver. I’ll be watching to see if it does.