MPD looking to add more cops and cameras in Downtown Memphis

Good morning, Memphis!
This is Metro Editor Corinne Kennedy, and you’re reading the Daily Briefing, our one-stop digital shop for the best Memphis stories from our award-winning Commercial Appeal team. And, as always, we’re here to curate some of the best stories from some of the area’s best journalists.
The City of Memphis is planning to bring additional law enforcement resources to the Downtown area, including more officers, more cameras and a new Memphis Police Department command center.
The new command center will be built a short distance from Beale Street, at 250 Peabody Place, and will have personnel stationed to constantly monitor Downtown via camera feeds. Designing is already underway for the center, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said, and there are hopes that it will be completed by April.
Other investments include the addition of nearly 200 street cameras. Once those cameras are in place, Downtown Memphis will have over 400 cameras for police to use, Lucas Finton reports here.
Civil suit drags on: A judge on Friday set another hearing date in the lawsuit surrounding a 2022 pickup basketball game at Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s house, another procedural step in the case that will drag into its fourth calendar year in 2025.
The case has been bogged down by a series of motions, hearings and attorneys withdrawing from representing the teenage basketball player in the case. Lucas Finton and Jonah Dylan bring us the latest updates in this story.
Man who died in jail IDed: An inmate died at the Shelby County Jail, commonly called 201 Poplar, Friday morning, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
TBI is investigating the death at the request of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. The agency is commonly called in to investigate deaths at the jail, along with police shootings, Luacs Finton reports here.
Here are a few other stories to check out this morning:
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