MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Senator Brent Taylor laid out his legislative priorities on crime for next year on Wednesday, and he is one of the first state lawmakers from the Shelby County area to do so.
"Memphis and Shelby County is in a crime crisis," Taylor said. "We’re under siege.”
This comes as Memphis has seen a record-breaking number of homicides and over 14 thousand cars stolen this year alone.
Taylor has a list of things he wants to accomplish during the next legislative session starting in January. His list includes the following:
- Finish "Blended Sentencing Law"
- Close aggravated assault "loophole"
- Create a new crime of felony possession of a stolen firearm
- Hold parents accountable for the "criminal acts of their children
- Right to report shoplifting to law enforcement
- Bail reforms, including judicial commissioner bail minimums, removing "financial condition" from consideration and rotating management of judicial commissioner program
- Restrict local bans on minor traffic offense stops by law enforcement
- Require outside DA in prosecution of local law enforcement officers
- Require sheriffs to notify ICE when an illegal immigrant is in custody
Local Memphians said these changes will only be part of the solution.
"When the kids get caught, they go downtown and they give them a slap on the wrist," Barbara Love, founder of the Love Foundation, an organization that works with victims of violence, said. "They going to gangs and going and destroying things and running through our city rabid because they feel no one cares about them. So, we want to tap into counselors."
The next Tennessee General Assembly session is set to start the second week of January.