Memphis police's new way of tallying killings will mean fewer recorded homicides

Six people have been shot and killed in Memphis in the first two weeks of the new year.

But Memphis police are counting only five of the fatal shootings as homicides.

MPD is using the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System, or TIBRS, the same system used by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies across the state to tally homicides in the city.

Under the TIBRS system, justifiable homicides are not counted, like the shooting death of an 18-year-old man on Jan. 4.

In that shooting, the first one of 2018, police said a homeowner wrestled a gun away from a robber who entered his home on Jolson Avenue, between Airways and Lamar.

The robber was shot and killed by the homeowner and police ruled the shooting justifiable, said Memphis Police Deputy Chief Don Crowe.

"When you look at what we've had so far in 2018, we've had five murders and one justifiable homicide," Crowe said. "So in years past, we would say that there were six homicides in Memphis this year. This year we've had five murders because all the murders are criminal acts and the justifiable is not."

Last year MPD began mulling whether it would change the way it tallies homicides.

Crowe said MPD implemented the change this year to more closely align with other departments across the state.

"In 2018, we're going to report like the rest of this state does. We have consulted with other agencies in the state and they all follow the TIBRS reporting system and we will too," Crowe said.

But in some of the other major cities in Tennessee, not all conform entirely to the TIBRS system.

In Knoxville, for example, the police department tallies its homicides the same way Memphis did last year, spokesman Darrell DeBusk said, including justifiable deaths.

"We include all deaths in our numbers," DeBusk said. "We had 31 homicides last year, and I believe out of the 31, three have been deemed justifiable but they are still counted in the numbers when they go to TIBRS."

MPD said the change had nothing to do with the record 228 homicides in 2016. Last year Memphis had 200 homicides. Under TIBRS, not all of the homicides in 2016 and 2017 would have met the definition of murder.

TIBRS counts homicides in the year they occurred, not when the act was ruled a homicide. For example, if someone was killed on New Year's Eve but the death was ruled a homicide on New Year's Day, Memphis police would include that death in the new year. TIBRS, however, would have included it in the previous year.

The reporting system also doesn't account for fetal deaths, despite a 2012 state law mandating that the killing of a fetus must be ruled a homicide. At least four fetuses were included in the 2016 tally in Memphis.

Dr. K.B. Turner, head of the department of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Memphis, said Tuesday that MPD's changing the way it tallies homicides was an "intelligent and wise" decision.

"Obviously when you don't include the justifiable homicides it certainly lowers the overall number of homicides. And for those who are consumers of crime data, they, too, need to understand that there is a difference between justifiable homicides and other homicides. I think it was an intelligent and wise move to transition to not including justifiable homicides in the tally."

Turner added, "I think it’s an attempt to make sure the public understands that there are different kinds of homicides. I think it's a matter of making sure the public has the correct information when it comes to homicides."