Memphis has a new top cop, and the private security industry is paying close attention.
Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, currently the police chief in Durham, North Carolina, has been confirmed as the next chief of the Memphis Police Department. She’ll be the first woman to lead MPD in the department’s 194-year history. Her appointment comes at one of the most difficult moments in Memphis policing: the department is hundreds of officers short of its authorized strength, homicides are on pace to break records for the second consecutive year, and community trust in law enforcement is strained.
For the security industry, a new police chief matters more than most people realize. The relationship between MPD and private security companies in Memphis has fluctuated over the years, ranging from productive collaboration to mutual indifference to occasional friction. Who sits in the chief’s office shapes that relationship in ways that directly affect how security companies operate, what information they receive, and whether the city views them as partners or as a nuisance.
I spent the past two weeks talking to security company owners, operations managers, and industry consultants in the Memphis metro about what they hope for, and worry about, under new leadership.
Who Is CJ Davis?
Davis comes to Memphis from Durham, where she served as police chief since 2016. Before Durham, she spent more than 20 years with the Atlanta Police Department, rising through the ranks from patrol officer to assistant chief.
Her background is heavily weighted toward community policing. In Durham, she implemented a community-focused model that emphasized officer engagement with neighborhoods, de-escalation training, and data-driven deployment. Durham’s crime rates remained relatively stable during her tenure, though the city, like most mid-size American cities, saw an increase in violent crime during 2020.
Davis holds a doctorate in public administration and has published academic work on policing strategies. She’s spoken publicly about the need to rebuild trust between police departments and the communities they serve, particularly in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Memphis selected Davis from a pool of candidates that reportedly included internal MPD applicants and chiefs from other cities. The selection process was managed by the city administration under Mayor Jim Strickland, and Davis’s appointment received generally positive reviews from Memphis City Council members.
Her start date is expected in June 2021.
The Chief’s Relationship With Private Security: A Brief History
Under former Chief Michael Rallings, who served from 2016 to 2021, MPD’s relationship with the private security industry was functional, if not particularly warm. Rallings focused his attention on violent crime reduction, officer recruitment, and community engagement. Private security wasn’t a priority, and it wasn’t a problem. The two sectors largely operated in parallel.
Where they intersected, the relationship was transactional. Security companies that detained suspects on client properties needed MPD to respond and take custody. MPD officers occasionally contacted security firms for information about incidents at properties with camera systems. The Real Time Crime Center, MPD’s surveillance hub, pulled feeds from some private cameras, though the integration was limited.
A few friction points existed. Some MPD officers viewed private security guards, particularly armed guards, as liabilities rather than assets. There were incidents where guards overstepped their authority, made bad detentions, or used force inappropriately. These incidents colored MPD’s perception of the industry, even though they represented a tiny fraction of guard interactions.
On the other side, security company owners complained that MPD response times to their calls for service were slow and getting slower. When a guard detains a trespasser and calls 911, waiting 45 minutes for an officer to arrive creates practical problems: the guard is tied up at that post, the detained person is agitated, and the liability clock is ticking.
Rallings didn’t actively damage the relationship with private security, and he didn’t do much to improve it. The relationship simply existed, shaped more by precinct-level interactions than by top-down policy.
What the Industry Hopes For
Every security company owner I spoke with expressed some version of the same wish: they want a chief who sees private security as a resource rather than a nuisance.
“We have 200 guards on the streets of Memphis every night,” one company owner told me. “Two hundred extra sets of eyes and ears. We see things. We hear things. We report things. I’d love a chief who recognizes that and builds a formal channel for sharing information.”
The idea of structured information-sharing between MPD and private security has been discussed for years in Memphis, without much progress. Other cities have implemented versions of it. Atlanta, where Davis spent most of her career, has a police-private security liaison program that channels communication between the department and contract security firms. If Davis brings a similar model to Memphis, the industry would welcome it.
Several owners also expressed hope that Davis would support streamlined processes for guard-initiated detentions and arrests. Currently, when a security guard detains someone on a client’s property, the process of getting MPD involved and transferring custody is informal and inconsistent. Some precincts handle it smoothly. Others treat guard calls as low priority.
“I’m not asking for special treatment,” an operations manager at a Memphis firm said. “I’m asking for a consistent process. When my guard calls MPD because he’s detained someone for trespassing with a weapon, that should get a timely response every time, not just when the precinct has spare capacity.”
The Staffing Question
Any conversation about Memphis police leadership in 2021 inevitably comes back to staffing. MPD is down more than 500 officers from its authorized strength. Recruiting has lagged for years, and attrition has accelerated. Officers are leaving for suburban departments that pay more, for federal agencies, or for private sector careers, including security management positions at the companies they once dismissed.
Davis inherits this staffing crisis, and how she addresses it will ripple into the private security sector.
If she successfully rebuilds MPD’s ranks, it could actually reduce demand for private security at some properties. Businesses that turned to private guards because MPD couldn’t provide adequate patrol coverage might scale back their security contracts once police presence improves. That’s a legitimate possibility, though few in the industry expect MPD to reach full strength anytime soon.
More likely, the staffing shortage persists throughout Davis’s early tenure, which means private security will continue filling the gaps that MPD can’t cover. In that scenario, the new chief’s attitude toward the industry becomes even more important. A chief who acknowledges that private security is compensating for police understaffing might be more inclined to build cooperative frameworks. A chief who views private security as a sign of government failure might resist that collaboration.
Davis’s track record in Durham suggests she’s pragmatic about resource constraints. Durham’s police department also faced staffing challenges during her tenure, and she worked with community organizations and non-police entities to address public safety gaps. Whether she extends that pragmatism to private security partnerships in Memphis remains to be seen.
Community Policing and Private Security
Davis’s emphasis on community policing raises an interesting question for the private security industry: where do security guards fit in a community policing model?
Community policing, broadly defined, means officers building relationships with the neighborhoods they serve, engaging with residents outside of enforcement contexts, and addressing root causes of crime rather than just responding to incidents. It’s a philosophy that puts a premium on trust, visibility, and proactive engagement.
Private security guards, particularly those stationed at apartment complexes, retail centers, and commercial properties, are deeply embedded in neighborhoods. They interact with residents and visitors daily. They know who belongs and who doesn’t. In some Memphis neighborhoods, security guards are more visible and more consistently present than police officers.
A chief who values community engagement might see security guards as potential partners in that model. Guards could participate in neighborhood watch coordination, share incident data with community policing officers, or serve as a communication bridge between residents and the police department.
Or a chief might draw a sharp line between sworn officers and private guards, keeping community policing initiatives strictly within MPD’s domain. Davis hasn’t publicly addressed how she views the role of private security in community safety models, and that ambiguity is part of what has the industry watching.
The Durham Comparison
Memphis and Durham share some characteristics. Both are mid-size Southern cities with significant Black populations, histories of racial tension, and challenges with violent crime. Both have police departments that have struggled with community trust.
The comparison breaks down in scale. Memphis has roughly 650,000 residents and a metropolitan area of over 1.3 million. Durham has about 280,000 people. Memphis’s homicide count in 2020 (approximately 332) exceeded Durham’s by a factor of roughly eight. The volume and intensity of violent crime in Memphis is on a different order of magnitude.
What worked in Durham may not translate directly to Memphis. Community policing initiatives that succeed in a city of 280,000 with a manageable crime rate face different challenges in a city more than twice that size with triple-digit homicides.
Security industry leaders in Memphis recognize this. “I hope she brings good ideas from Durham,” a veteran industry consultant told me. “I also hope she recognizes that Memphis is a different animal. The crime here is different. The geography is different. The political dynamics are different. What she needs from this industry might be different too.”
What to Watch For
The first six months of Davis’s tenure will reveal a lot about how the relationship between MPD and private security will evolve. Here’s what the industry should pay attention to:
Does she appoint someone to liaise with the security industry? A dedicated point of contact within MPD for private security firms would signal that Davis takes the relationship seriously. It would also provide a channel for addressing issues like response times, information sharing, and joint training opportunities.
Does she engage with industry associations? Tennessee’s security industry has professional organizations and informal networks that meet regularly. A chief who attends, or sends a representative to, these meetings demonstrates interest in collaboration.
How does she handle guard-involved incidents? When a security guard uses force or makes a controversial detention, the chief’s public response sets the tone. If Davis treats every guard incident as evidence that private security is out of control, the relationship will suffer. If she responds proportionally and acknowledges that guards operate in difficult conditions, trust builds.
Does she address the staffing gap honestly? A chief who acknowledges that MPD can’t do it alone, that the city needs private security to supplement police coverage, creates space for a productive partnership. A chief who insists that policing is solely a government function, while 500 positions sit unfilled, isn’t being realistic.
A Moment of Possibility
New leadership always creates a window for change. Whether that change is positive, negative, or negligible depends entirely on the people involved and the choices they make.
CJ Davis arrives in Memphis with strong credentials, a community-focused philosophy, and the historic significance of being the first woman to lead MPD. She also arrives in a city that is more violent, more short-staffed, and more dependent on private security than at any point in recent memory.
The security industry isn’t asking for favors. It’s asking for recognition that private guards are part of Memphis’s public safety infrastructure, whether anyone planned it that way or not. A chief who understands that, and acts on it, would make a meaningful difference.
The industry is watching. And hoping.