Memphis Police Department history

From February 1925 to December of that year, the special agent in charge was T.M. Daniel.

In the early 1930’s he formed a partnership with Charles R Cash and became the secretary and treasurer of the Seabrook Cash Cotton Company.

The fact that MPD officers made less money than officers in Atlanta and Nashville, not having civil service protection, (Crump removed that in 1935), and rarely getting days off pushed them to their limits.

As a result, the Memphis Division reopened in 1937, with Special Agent in Charge T.N. Stapleton at its helm.

Thanks to his association with his friend, he was appointed as the City‘s Beer Commissioner, City Clerk, and in 1939 as assistant to Police and Fire Commissioner Clifford Davis.

On December 5, 1940 Chief Seabrook, on orders from Joseph Boyle, fired long time, Captain J. P. Cross, who had been accused of a minor infraction.

In 1941, part of Memphis’ territory and cases were transferred to the new Jackson, Mississippi Division; the total number of agents in Memphis was reduced from 47 to 24.

October 1943, after the shenanigans of Chief Seabrook and Joe Boyle, the entire police department had enough.

Seabrook got crossways between the local pinball concession, the bingo games at churches, the juke box racket, and in 1944, the racing and betting population.

The first came in 1953, when agents apprehended Arnold Hinson in Memphis.

And in 1957, division agents nabbed Alfred James White in Memphis after being tipped off by a citizen who had seen his mug shot on a wanted poster.

In 1963, for example, civil rights and racial matters accounted for only four percent of the division’s cases, but the investigations required almost 25 percent of its manpower and 30 percent of its overtime.

In 1980, Blanton and two of his aides were indicted for their roles in a scheme to provide liquor licenses to those who agreed to pay a portion of their profits from the licenses.