Cerelyn Davis

CTL-E-6777 · Person · other · contemporary

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

Cerelyn J. 'C.J.' Davis is chief of the Memphis Police Department and a former chief of Durham, North Carolina, whose career began in Atlanta. Davis joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1986, rising to commander of its RED DOG anti-drug unit in 2006–2007, major, and eventually deputy chief, and served as president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. In 2008 she was demoted and fired over an allegation connected to a sex-crimes investigation involving a sergeant's husband; she fought the termination, was reinstated after appeal, and later described the episode in her memoir. Durham appointed Davis its police chief in 2016, the first Black woman to hold that post. In June 2021 Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland brought her to Memphis, where she became the department's first woman chief and first Black woman chief, taking the title 'chief' rather than the traditional 'director' at her request. In 2021 she created the SCORPION street-crime unit; after five of its officers fatally beat Tyre Nichols in January 2023, Davis disbanded the unit, moved quickly to fire the officers, and called the killing 'a defining moment' for American policing. In January 2024 the Memphis City Council's executive committee voted 7–6 to recommend against her reappointment; Mayor Paul Young retained her on an interim basis while she sought the council votes to continue. A correction to the commissioning list: Davis does not currently lead Atlanta — the Atlanta chief since 2022 is Darin Schierbaum; Davis's Atlanta service was as a deputy chief before Durham.

Notes

Merged 2026-11-02 from the staged police chiefs packet (website/.build-work/scratch-v114/police/) under the GOV-006 founder gate opened 2026-11-02; the staged record is carried verbatim — no claim upgraded in transit (GOV-004). · Roles as staged: Police leadership — Chief, Durham Police Department (2016–2021); Chief, Memphis Police Department (2021–present) · Photo: Public domain (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee). Source: CultureTechLens. Full per-asset record in this package's photo-records.json, keyed to CTL-E-6777.

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'Cerelyn J. Davis' — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerelyn_J._Davis
• tricityrecordnm.com — https://www.tricityrecordnm.com/articles/memphis-tennessee-police-chief-to-serve-in-interim-role-under-new-mayor/
• atlantapd.org — https://www.atlantapd.org/about-apd/office-of-the-chief/chief-of-police-darin-schierbaum

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Record CTL-E-6777 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 3 sources · CTL research: PPL-001.
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