Shelby County is zeroing in on its war against violent crime, with District Attorney Steve Mulroy updating the public regarding stringent measures against repeat offenders. As reported by Action News 5, the focus is on 11 priority offenses as part of the Violent Crime Initiative set into action last year. Those offenses include first and second-degree murder attempts, carjacking, aggravated robbery, and others that prick up the county's crime statistics. A major tactical change in combatting these crimes involves a controversial take on how bail amounts are set, aiming to better reflect the gravity of offenses and protect the public.
D.A. Mulroy's office is doing more than raising eyebrows, with a more than 6% jump in major violent crime last year throwing fuel to the fire of their initiative. However, eyebrows were also raised, surrounding bail amounts that have seemed inconsistent, with some community members scratching their heads. According to a Local Memphis report, there was notable disparity in bond amounts, as seen in the contrasting cases of Charles Dawson, with a bond set at $1.5 million for attempted first-degree murder, and Memphis firefighter Cameron Land, who got his bond lowered from $350,000 to $5,000 despite facing a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
"In the past, public safety wasn't adequately considered in the bond amount," Mulroy said, addressing the mismatch. The Fast Track Violent Crime initiative, known as V11, is stepping in to ensure bonds better reflect the defendant's risk to the community. A prodigious example was the increase of Geronimo Kee's bond from $175,000 to $500,000 after being accused of shooting a police officer, as ABC24 Memphis shared. This initiative guarantees more thorough background checks to ascertain the public threat level posed by a suspect before setting bail.
Meanwhile, scratching at the surface of the bond issue, the Shelby County Commission, brimming with concern, works with the University of Memphis Center for Community Research & Evaluation to unravel the bonding process intricacies. Seeking to illuminate the bail-setting process, Chief Data Scientist Jonathan Bennett spoke of examining typical bail amounts correlated with defendants' circumstances and demographics, hoping that the findings would usher in transparency and fair practice. "What we’re really concerned about is not using the monetary amount as some sort of symbolic statement of our level of outrage at the underlying accused crime," Mulroy told Local Memphis, acknowledging that factors beyond the crime itself will influence bond decisions.
