Former MPD officers lose ability to police months after being charged with egregious crimes, accused of misconduct

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Seven former Memphis police officers are now banned from carrying badges in Tennessee as the state works to clear a backlog of unresolved misconduct allegations stretching back years.

Among the officers who were decertified at a hearing in Nashville on Thursday was a man convicted of statutory rape and an officer who pled guilty to child pornography.

Police officers must be certified to carry a badge, and the seven former officers lost their certifications only after an Action News 5 investigation in partnership with the Institute for Public Service Reporting uncovered a years-long backlog that allowed these officers to still police in Tennessee despite criminal charges and other serious allegations made against them.

Former Officer Michael Tippett is one of them. Tippett was captured repeatedly punching a man on a bystander’s cell phone in November 2018.

News agencies reported on the video after it was posted to social media, and three months later, the Memphis Police Department found Tippett had violated the department’s excessive force policy.

Body-worn camera video shows the same incident from another angle: a man sworn to protect and serve, hitting a man who was panhandling nearly 20 times after the man spit in Tippett’s face.

In the video, you can hear the man, who is handcuffed, crying and wailing while Tippett yells and curses.

“Spit on me again!” You can hear Tippett say.

Records show Tippett resigned from MPD in lieu of termination, but police then waited nearly two years to request his decertification.

After the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) received MPD’s decertification request, it waited another two years to schedule Tippett’s hearing because, it said, it couldn’t find him.

Action News 5′s investigation revealed a backlog in decertification requests. Tippett was one of 38 Tennessee officers waiting for decertification hearings; 14 of them were from the Memphis Police Department.

A spokesperson from POST said the backlog had been reduced since our investigation because officers who had pending civil litigation or criminal charges no longer have to wait to be decertificated before their cases are adjudicated.

The spokesperson also wrote that POST had recently added staff members to assist with decertifications, but did not say how many staff members or their functions, and it no longer requires agencies to make presentations for officers who do not show up to their hearings.

Five years after his altercation in Downtown Memphis, Tippett was stripped of his badge at Thursday’s hearing by the POST commission because he didn’t show up for his hearing.

The six others include a former officer who was charged with the rape of a 17-year-old in 2021, and another former officer who, last year, confessed to federal investigators that he downloaded and possessed child pornography.

Former Officer Eric Kelly also lost his certification after he was caught having sex with a woman he charged in a murder case four years ago.

“It’s a huge problem,” said Hans Menos with the Center for Policing Equity.

He said while some officers deserve second chances, others do not.

“There are degrees where, at some point, you’ve forfeited your right to be a police officer,” he said. “Actively harming someone to a criminal point, I think you’ve forfeited your right to be a police officer. Beating people, violating civil rights to a point, all forfeit your rights to be a police officer.”

Two other Memphis police officers will appear in front of the POST commission in January after they requested an extension. One of them is an officer we told you about previously who used his Taser so much he was nicknamed “Taser Face.”

MPD also withdrew their decertification requests for two other officers on Thursday’s hearing schedule, including Carl Craig, who was caught breeding MPD K9 dogs.

We also found that most of these officers were allowed to resign or retire before they were fired by MPD.

Alexis Granger was arrested for DUI and running from police in August 2021 and resigned before she was disciplined by MPD in February 2022.

Eric Kelly was found to have violated several department policies in 2019 but retired before he was disciplined, also in 2019.

Travis Pride was charged with the rape of a 17-year-old in May 2021 and resigned before his MPD disciplinary hearing.

Vernon Sumner was federally charged with child pornography and was allowed to resign before he was disciplined in 2022.

In October 2019, former police Lieutenant Byron Johnson was found to have violated department policies the previous year, in May 2018, after a juvenile was tased and did not receive medical care. Johnson retired in February 2021, nearly three years after the incident.

Breigha Wilder-Cochran resigned before her disciplinary hearing after she was found to have violated the department’s drug policy.

Memphis police were called to Wilder-Cochran’s home in October 2020 and she resigned in February 2021.

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