Two weeks ago, Cerelyn “CJ” Davis raised her right hand inside City Hall and became the 29th director of the Memphis Police Department. She’s the first woman to hold the job. She replaces Michael Rallings, who led MPD through the deadliest year in the city’s modern history.
For anyone running a private security company in Memphis right now, this matters. A lot.
The Numbers Behind the Hire
Memphis recorded 332 homicides in 2020. That broke every record the city had set before. Aggravated assaults climbed. Property crime stayed high. And through all of it, MPD kept losing officers faster than it could hire them.
When Rallings left, the department had roughly 2,000 sworn officers. That number should be closer to 2,500. The gap, somewhere around 500 unfilled positions, means slower response times, fewer patrols, and entire neighborhoods where residents rarely see a squad car unless someone dials 911.
Davis knows this. She told reporters during her first week that recruiting and retention sit at the top of her priority list. She wants to modernize the department, bring in new technology, and rebuild trust with communities that have felt ignored.
Good goals. They’ll take years.
Where Davis Comes From
Before Memphis, Davis spent nearly five years as police chief in Durham, North Carolina. Durham’s a college town. It has crime, sure, but nothing like what Memphis produces. The scale here is different.
Davis has over 30 years in law enforcement. She started her career with the Atlanta Police Department, worked her way up, and earned a reputation as a reform-minded leader. Mayor Jim Strickland picked her after a national search, and the city council confirmed her appointment in May.
The council’s relationship with Rallings had gotten rough. Council members clashed with him over transparency, use-of-force policies, and his handling of protests in 2020. Davis walks into a department where the political dynamics are tricky and the public expects results fast.
What This Means for Frayser, Raleigh, and Hickory Hill
Talk to anyone living in Frayser and they’ll tell you the same thing. Police take too long to show up. Sometimes they don’t show up at all. Same story in Raleigh. Same story across Hickory Hill, where strip mall parking lots have become regular targets for robbery crews.
These neighborhoods have dealt with MPD’s staffing problems for years. The officers who do patrol these areas work long shifts and cover too much ground. When you’ve got one car covering a precinct that needs four, crimes go unanswered.
Private security companies have noticed. Demand from property managers, business owners, and even neighborhood associations in these areas has been climbing since late 2019. The pandemic made it worse. The homicide spike made it worse still.
I talked to three security company owners this week. None of them wanted to go on the record (they’re careful about how they talk about MPD) but all three said the same thing. Business is up. Way up. One owner told me his company added 15 new contracts in the first quarter of 2021 alone, most of them in Whitehaven and Hickory Hill. Another said he can’t hire guards fast enough to fill the posts he’s already sold.
The Private Security Opportunity (and Its Limits)
Here’s the reality. When MPD can’t cover a neighborhood, somebody else will. And right now, that somebody is the private security industry.
Gas stations along Winchester Road are hiring armed guards. Shopping centers in Whitehaven are posting security at entrances. Apartment complexes in Raleigh that never had security before are now running 24-hour guard posts. Churches in Frayser have started contracting patrol services for Sunday mornings and Wednesday night Bible study.
The demand is real. It isn’t going away anytime soon, either. Even if Davis manages to hire 200 officers in her first year (and that would be an aggressive target) MPD would still be hundreds short of where it needs to be.
Private security companies are filling a gap. They’re also making money doing it. Contract rates for unarmed guards in Memphis have crept up from $18-20 per hour to $22-25 per hour over the past 18 months. Armed guard contracts are running $28-35 per hour depending on the site and the risk profile.
There are limits, though. Security guards aren’t police. They can’t make arrests in most situations. They can’t run traffic stops or investigate felonies. What they can do is provide presence, deter crime, document incidents, and call the real police when something happens.
That distinction matters, and it’s something the industry needs to keep front of mind as it grows. Overpromising what a guard can do gets people hurt and companies sued.
What Security Company Owners Are Watching
Every owner I spoke with is watching the same handful of things as Davis settles into her new role.
Hiring timeline. If Davis manages to ramp up MPD recruiting quickly, the flood of private security contracts might slow down. Nobody expects this to happen fast, though. Police recruiting is brutal right now. Departments across the country are short-staffed, and Memphis has to compete with cities that pay better and have less crime.
Community policing strategy. Davis has talked about community policing and building relationships in high-crime neighborhoods. If MPD assigns dedicated officers to Frayser or Hickory Hill and those officers actually stay, it could change the dynamic. Property managers might feel less pressure to hire private security if MPD presence increases.
Crime trends. Memphis is on pace to match or beat last year’s homicide numbers. Through the end of June, the city has already recorded well over 150 homicides. If violent crime keeps climbing, demand for private security will too. Simple math.
Regulatory attention. More security guards on the streets means more chances for something to go wrong. An untrained guard making a bad decision at 2 a.m. outside a nightclub could bring regulatory scrutiny to the entire industry. The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance handles security guard licensing, and there’s always a risk that high-profile incidents could trigger new rules or tighter enforcement.
The political climate. Davis is a Black woman running a majority-Black police department in a city with deep racial tensions around policing. How she handles use-of-force issues, protest response, and community relations will shape the public conversation about safety in Memphis for years. Private security companies operate in that same conversation, whether they want to or not.
The Bigger Picture
Memphis has always been a tough city for law enforcement. The poverty rate hovers around 25%. The population has been slowly declining for decades. The tax base is thin, which means city budgets are tight, which means MPD salaries stay low compared to suburban departments in Collierville, Germantown, and Bartlett.
Officers leave MPD for those suburban departments all the time. Better pay, less crime, shorter commutes. Davis has to figure out how to keep officers from walking out the door while also recruiting new ones to walk in.
Until she does, private security companies will keep getting phone calls. Whitehaven business owners will keep posting guards outside their stores. Raleigh apartment complexes will keep running overnight patrols. Frayser churches will keep hiring off-duty officers and licensed guards for their Sunday services.
The leadership change at MPD is significant. CJ Davis brings a fresh perspective and real experience. She might be exactly what the department needs.
What she won’t do is fix a staffing shortage overnight. And as long as that shortage persists, the private security industry in Memphis will keep growing.
Marcus Johnson covers the Memphis security industry for Memphis Security Insider. Contact him at marcus@memphissecurityinsider.com.