Memphis city officials are back in the legal spotlight as two civil-rights organizations accuse them of slamming the door on public access to police records that could show whether long-promised reforms ever happened.
Stand for Children Tennessee and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department on Feb. 24, 2026, alleging the city unlawfully denied a public-records request submitted in May 2025. The groups say they asked for routine MPD documents that would reveal whether the department changed its use-of-force policies and internal practices after a federal review, and that a blanket denial is blocking the public from seeing if reforms pledged after a Justice Department probe were actually carried out.
What the lawsuit demands
The complaint asks a court to order the release of use-of-force reports, response-to-resistance forms, internal investigation memos, and policy documents that advocates describe as standard police records. The request is part of a coordinated records push in seven states that aims to track what, if anything, changed after Department of Justice investigations.
As detailed by Stand for Children Tennessee, the original records demand went in back in May 2025. Months later, advocates say, they are still empty-handed and now want a judge to step in.
DOJ findings and the federal task force
The entire case is set against the backdrop of a December 4, 2024, finding by the Justice Department that the Memphis Police Department engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force, unlawful stops, and racial discrimination, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That report triggered promises of reform from city leaders and police brass.
Plaintiffs say transparency is even more critical now, with a massive federal law enforcement surge operating in Memphis. The Daily Memphian reported that more than 1,500 federal personnel are working alongside roughly 1,900 MPD officers, a level of joint activity that the civil-rights groups argue heightens the need for public oversight of day-to-day policing.
Voices from the plaintiffs
"This lawsuit is necessary because the public deserves answers," Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee, said in a press release via the ACLU.
Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director of policing at the ACLU, added that "when police operate in the shadows, it allows misconduct to flourish and communities pay the price." The organizations argue that the disputed records are a basic accountability tool and that without them, there is no real way to measure whether MPD has followed through on its reform promises.
Legal context
The new case lands after a string of recent public-records battles in Memphis. In October 2025, a local student won a lawsuit against the city over delayed access to officer disciplinary files, according to Action News 5.
Open-records advocates have also flagged earlier court rulings that found Memphis improperly withheld records and ordered the city to pay related fees, a pattern cited by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. Under the Tennessee Public Records Act, such precedents can lead courts to compel disclosure and award attorneys' fees when governments fall short of their transparency obligations.
What's next
The lawsuit asks a court to require immediate production of the requested police records and to apply state-law remedies for unlawful denials. Plaintiffs expect the city to file its formal response in the coming weeks, and the ACLU says it brought the case to secure public oversight rather than wait out further delay.
If the court sides with the civil-rights groups, Memphis could be ordered to hand over the files and cover some of the plaintiffs' costs, outcomes that have followed in similar Tennessee records disputes.
For now, the litigation sets up a near-term test of how willing Memphis is to comply with requests for internal police data in the wake of federal findings of misconduct. The suit was filed Feb. 24, 2026, and the next phase will unfold as judges set schedules and city lawyers put their position on the record in the weeks ahead.
