Readout of Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta’s Trip to Memphis

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta traveled to Memphis today to attend the investiture of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee and meet with local Memphis officials and community leaders.

Associate Attorney General Gupta met with Mayor Jim Strickland and Police Chief C.J. Davis to discuss the city’s request for assistance from the CRI-TAC initiative, funded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) as well as the city’s response to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols. The Justice Department’s ongoing federal criminal civil rights investigation into the death of Tyre Nichols is being handled jointly by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, the Civil Rights Division and the FBI.

In a meeting with two dozen local faith and community leaders, the Associate Attorney General heard from local leaders about the need for fair policing, as well as their efforts on the ground to support those most at risk of becoming intertwined with the criminal justice system. She discussed the department’s programs, including those that support police community trust and community violence intervention efforts, and the department’s ongoing efforts to make grant funding more accessible to local community groups.

In the afternoon, Western District of Tennessee District Judge S. Thomas Anderson presided over the investiture of U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz. Associate Attorney General Gupta spoke at the ceremony, along with former U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III and the Honorable Julia S. Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, for whom U.S. Attorney Ritz served as a law clerk. The investiture was attended by several federal district and court of appeals judges, as well as local law enforcement and community leaders and elected officials.