U.S. and Memphis in Police Accord News Clipping

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. and Memphis in Police Accord
WASHINGTON, April 22 (AP) — The 

Department of Justice sign^ an agree­
ment today with the city of Memphis 
under which the city’s police force 
pledged a thorough investigation of mis­
conduct charges against officers and 
strict adherence to a new policy limiting 
the use of firearms by the police.

Attorney General Benjamin R. Civi- 
lettl said the agreement followed 18 
months of Investigation by the Justice 
Department’s civil rights division into al­
legations of racial discrimination In po­
lice services, police misconduct and un­
warranted use of force by the police.

The re^lution of the Memphis investi­
gation is in sharp contrast to the outcome 
of a similar Inquiry into alleged police 
brutality in Philadelphia.

Agreement Called Unprecedented
Officials in that city, like those in Mem­

phis, denied charges of racial discrimina­
tion but refused to negotiate with the civil 
rights division, which filed suit against 
Philadelphia last year. The suit was dis- 
missed by a Federal district judge, but an 
appeal was to be filed.

Assistant Attorney General Drew S. 
Days 3d, head of the civil rights division, 
said further investigation of the Memphis 
police force by the Department of Justice

would be deferred because the police had 
taken what he called significant steps to 
insure more effective and fair police 
services to black residents of the city.

Mr. Days added that the the agreement 
was the first ever obtained by the depart­
ment to resolve allegations of police mis­
conduct and racial discrimination.

Under the agreement, the department 
pledged to adhere to an order issued last 
July 13 on the use of deadly force. The de­
partment also agreed to assign a new po­
lice captain, William Moseley, to head an 
internal affairs bureau responsible for in­
vestigating citizen complaints of police 
misconduct.

The policy on deadly force authorizes 
the police to use firearms in self-defense 
where the officer has been attacked or is 
being threatened with deadly force, in de­
fense of others in similar circumstances, 
to stop a dangerous felony in progress, or 
to apprehend a suspect fleeing from a 
dangerous felony when the officer has 
witnessed the offense or knows the sus­
pect committed the offense.

The policy prohibits the use of firearms 
for warning shots or for arresting a per­
son for escape from a misdemeanor or for 
a misdemeanor offense, or against a 
juvenile unless in self defense.