Report from WMC- TV 5, Memphis 
By Darrell Phillips, October 3, 2003

Memphis Police Department policing itself

Outside Kenneth Danberry's $230,000 Cordova home, neighbors reacted to the sudden attention and the news that the man who lived here may be the first link in a corruption chain that bartered drugs stolen from the Memphis Police Department property room. Traci Weatherford, Neighbor: "Well, it disturbs me I guess to know that that's going on. The neighborhood's been quiet. No one I would think would have any idea."

Even as police and Federal Agents announced 16 indictments stemming from the theft, auditors went through files at their downtown property room. A warehouse of guns, drugs and other confiscated evidence. The room is watched by civilian employees like Supervisor Kenneth Dansberry and supply employee Carl Johnson who each took home around $30,000 a year.

When Dansberry's house was searched, investigators found more than a million dollars in cash. Already police are re-thinking their staffing here. Dir. James Bolden, Memphis Police: "We have not seen a need to have commissioned officers in there but it's certainly something that we will take under advisement at this time."

Police say the two employees had help from Crystal Greer who would make regular bank deposits small enough to avoid notice. Thirteen others were also involved in the possession and trafficking of the drugs on the back end. And it's not over yet.

Terry Harris, US Attorney: "I can say there will be more charges flowing from this investigation." One of the 16 people indicted is still not in custody. Investigators are looking for Darryl McGhee. He's also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Follow-up Editorial from 
gomemphis.com, your news online 
October 5, 2003

A federal grand jury has indicted 16 people, including three current or former civilian employees of the property room, on charges that link the alleged thefts to a multi state cocaine ring.

FBI agents seized a suburban Atlanta mansion owned by a former $18,975-a-year property room worker. Authorities also confiscated more than $1 million from the car and Cordova home of a veteran property room shift supervisor; he and another indicted property room employee have been suspended while the investigation proceeds.

Federal officials also seized 29 vehicles, many of them luxury models, along with jewelry, cash, drugs, guns and real estate during raids in Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia arising from the property room investigation.

The crimes described in the indictments allegedly took place between early last year and last month. To his credit, Memphis Police Director James Bolden, who has been in the job for barely seven months, appears to have taken a properly proactive stance.

Acting on an internal tip about alleged property room thefts, Bolden called in the FBI to investigate and the state Comptroller's Office to audit records. But problems with the property and evidence room long predate the period covered by the federal indictments.

The property room ostensibly is under round-the-clock video surveillance and all items are supposedly documented in a computerized database. But state and internal audits dating back to 1999 describe various deficiencies: improper recording of seized cash, excessive crowding, weapons and drugs left too long in the room, marijuana on the floor.

Police brass at the time pledged to take corrective measures. If they were implemented, they evidently didn't work.

The property room investigation may have broader implications. Some cases that have been made, in part, on the basis of seized evidence could be compromised.

And there is the corrosive effect on public confidence in the integrity of police operations. If the property room probe diminishes that confidence, the honest, competent and hard-working officers who make up the overwhelming majority of Police Department employees will suffer unjustly.

That's all the more reason to impose effective controls on property room operations and to fix the problem - immediately, conspicuously and permanently.