The parking lot at a strip mall on Winchester Road near Hickory Hill tells the story better than any press conference. Two years ago, a Memphis Police cruiser might have rolled through once a shift. Now there’s a white SUV with a magnetic “Security Patrol” decal on the door, parked under a busted light pole, engine idling. The guard inside is scrolling his phone. He’s also the only visible deterrent between a Family Dollar and the three car break-ins that happened here last Tuesday.
This is what six months after SCORPION looks like in Memphis.
The Disbanding and What Followed
On January 28, 2023, Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis permanently disbanded the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods unit. The decision came one day after the city released body camera footage showing five SCORPION officers beating Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop on January 7. Nichols died three days later at St. Francis Hospital. All five officers were fired and charged with second-degree murder.
The disbanding was the right call. Almost nobody disputes that. What people do dispute, six months in, is whether anyone planned for what came next.
SCORPION had roughly 40 officers assigned to high-crime areas across Memphis. They ran aggressive, proactive patrols targeting violent crime hot spots. The unit made hundreds of arrests in neighborhoods like Frayser, Whitehaven, and Orange Mound. With SCORPION gone and MPD already short several hundred officers due to attrition and hiring struggles, those same neighborhoods lost a layer of patrol coverage that hasn’t been replaced.
The DOJ announced in July that it would open a civil rights investigation into the Memphis Police Department. That investigation will take years. Memphis residents and business owners aren’t waiting years. They’re hiring private security now.
The Demand Spike Is Real
Talk to any security company owner in Shelby County and you’ll hear the same thing: the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since February.
Phelps Security, the family-owned firm that’s been operating out of its Park Avenue office since 1960, told local media earlier this year that inquiries had doubled compared to the same period in 2022. That tracks with what I’m hearing from smaller operators too. One company owner on Summer Avenue, who asked not to be named because he didn’t want to look like he was profiting from tragedy, said he’d added 14 new accounts between March and June. Most were apartment complexes and retail strip centers in Southeast Memphis.
The pattern is consistent across the city. Property managers who used to rely on MPD’s presence as a passive deterrent are now budgeting for what they previously considered optional. A security patrol contract that runs $25 to $35 per hour isn’t cheap when you’re covering overnight shifts seven days a week. For a mid-size apartment complex in Raleigh, that can add $6,000 to $8,000 per month to operating costs.
“We had owners who never wanted to pay for security,” one property management executive told me. “Now they’re calling us asking why we don’t already have guards on site.”
Who’s Actually Filling the Gaps
The biggest national firms are picking up large commercial contracts. Allied Universal and Securitas both have significant Memphis operations and the capacity to scale quickly. GardaWorld, which runs security for several logistics and distribution facilities near the airport, has been recruiting heavily in the Memphis market since spring.
The interesting action, though, is happening at the local and regional level. Smaller Tennessee-licensed firms are winning contracts that would have been out of their reach two years ago, mostly because they can deploy faster and price lower than national competitors. A local company can have an armed guard on a property within 48 hours of signing a contract. The nationals sometimes take two to three weeks for onboarding and background processing.
There’s a catch, though. Speed and low cost don’t always equal quality. Tennessee requires 48 hours of initial training for security guards, plus background checks through the TBI and FBI via IdentoGO fingerprinting. Armed guards need additional firearms qualification. Some of the companies rushing to meet demand are cutting corners on training documentation, and TDCI, the state agency that oversees private security licensing, has limited enforcement bandwidth to catch every violation.
I spoke with a TDCI-licensed trainer in East Memphis who said he’d seen a “noticeable drop” in the quality of trainees showing up for required coursework. “Companies are hiring warm bodies and sending them to us to check a box,” he said. “Some of these guys don’t know the difference between a citizen’s arrest and a police arrest, and that’s a liability problem waiting to happen.”
What Property Managers Are Actually Doing
The response from commercial property owners breaks down into roughly three tiers.
At the top end, Class A office buildings and large retail centers are signing contracts with established firms and installing upgraded camera systems. The Cooper Young business district and some Midtown properties have organized shared security patrols where multiple businesses split the cost of a roving guard. It’s not a new concept, and it works best in walkable areas where one patrol car can cover a dozen storefronts.
In the middle tier, apartment complexes and smaller commercial properties are hiring single guards for overnight shifts. This is the fastest-growing segment of private security demand in Memphis right now. These aren’t armed tactical patrols. They’re a visible presence meant to deter break-ins, car thefts, and trespassing. The guard sits in a marked vehicle, drives the property every 30 minutes, and calls 911 if something happens.
At the lower end, some property owners are going the DIY route. Ring cameras, better lighting, reinforced doors, and hope. A hardware store manager in Whitehaven told me he’d spent $2,200 on cameras and motion-sensor lights since March. “I can’t afford a guard,” he said. “I can afford to make my parking lot bright enough that people think twice.”
The Numbers Behind the Anxiety
Memphis’s crime statistics explain the urgency. The city recorded 528 murders in 2022. Through the first six months of 2023, the pace hasn’t slowed. Memphis remains one of the most violent cities in the country by per capita rates, and the categories driving that ranking (aggravated assault, robbery, carjacking) are exactly the crimes that property owners and residents feel most directly.
Carjackings remain a particular source of fear. MPD reported hundreds of carjacking incidents in 2022, and the 2023 numbers are running at a similar clip. The crime tends to cluster around commercial areas, gas stations, and apartment complex parking lots, which is precisely where private security patrols are being deployed.
The economic math is straightforward. A carjacking at an apartment complex costs the property owner in insurance claims, tenant turnover, and reputation. A security patrol costs less. Property managers are making that calculation every week.
The Uncomfortable Questions
Six months out from SCORPION’s end, a few things are becoming clear.
First, private security is not a substitute for policing. Guards can observe and report. They can deter through visible presence. They cannot investigate crimes, make most arrests, or respond to 911 calls. When a shooting happens at 2 a.m. on a property with a security guard, that guard is calling the same understaffed MPD precinct as everyone else.
Second, the growth in private security is creating a two-tier safety system in Memphis. Neighborhoods and businesses that can afford $30-per-hour patrol contracts get a visible deterrent. Those that can’t are left with whatever MPD can provide, and MPD is stretched thinner than at any point in recent memory.
Third, the regulatory framework hasn’t kept pace. TDCI processes thousands of guard registrations per year, and the current staffing levels at the Private Protective Services board weren’t designed for a market expanding this fast. Companies that cut corners on training or background checks can operate for months before anyone notices.
Chief Davis has acknowledged the staffing shortage and announced multiple recruiting initiatives. MPD is offering signing bonuses and lateral transfer incentives to attract officers from other departments. Whether those efforts can offset the attrition rate, which has been running at roughly 15 to 20 officers per month for the past year, remains an open question.
What Comes Next
The DOJ investigation will shape Memphis policing for years. Federal pattern-or-practice investigations typically result in consent decrees that mandate specific reforms, and those reforms take time and money to implement. In the interim, MPD will continue operating with reduced capacity.
That means private security demand in Memphis isn’t a spike. It’s a plateau. Companies that positioned themselves early are already locked into multi-year contracts. Firms that waited are now competing for whatever’s left.
For property managers and business owners across Shelby County, the calculation has shifted permanently. Security isn’t a line item you add when crime gets bad and cut when it improves. It’s infrastructure. And six months after SCORPION, Memphis is learning that lesson the expensive way.