Madden and Smith will serve on Strickland's team of six executives who will report directly to the mayor after he takes office on Jan. 1. Previously, directors reported to the chief administrative officer who reported to the mayor.
Keenon McCloy will continue as director of libraries. Yet to be named is the director of Parks and Neighborhoods -and little has been said about the status of Housing and Community Development where deputy director Debbie Singleton is serving as interim director since Robert Lipscomb resigned from HCD.
Some 200 positions in city government are appointed and all cannot be new people, Strickland has said.
NEW FORENSIC STORAGE FACILITY IMPROVES RESPONSE TO RAPE CASES
The Memphis Police Department completed construction of a $1 million forensic storage facility this month that will assure all sexual assault forensic material and kits are stored appropriately and tracked consistently.
At a two-day summit organized by the Memphis task force, Mayor A C Wharton described work underway on thousands of stored rape kits. Summit attendees included the district attorneys from Detroit, Memphis and Cleveland; police officials from Houston and Memphis and Women's Council's Deborah Clubb.
The new space in MPD's property and evidence facility in Frayser features a specially-ventilated drying room for collected evidence that is damp or wet and racks of shelving on rails that can hold 50,400 sexual assault kits.
The project was one piece of the city's response to the 12,000-plus stored inventory of rape kits that is being addressed by the Memphis Sexual Assault Kit Task Force appointed by Mayor Wharton and coordinated by Doug McGowen, now Mayor Strickland's chief operating officer.
So far 5,555 (45%) of stored kits have completed analysis; 2,897 (23%) are at laboratory awaiting analysis and 3,922 (32%) need additional analysis. All funds needed for lab testing, some $6 million, has been raised. Investigation and prosecution of all cases to arise from testing will take several more years as kits continue to go to and return from labs and be entered in the national crime database for possible identification of suspects.
Already 866 Investigations have been initiated and 176 Investigations remain active. The District Attorney has completed 142 requests for indictments against persons or DNA profiles. That includes 94 named suspects (35 multi case suspects) or 66% of indictments and 48 John Does or 34% of indictments. Seven John Does are multi-case suspects (more than 4 rapes).
BRIDGES MASHA TEENS - A NEW GENERATION OF ACTIVISTS
The Women's Council has signed on as a mentor partner organization with Bridge Builders CHANGE group - 25 teens from across Memphis who come together to create social change in our community.
This year the group is working in two teams on campaigns - one aimed at sexual harassment and assault and the other on leveraging teen voices on school issues.
Memphis Against Sexual Harassment and Assault (MASHA) is the campaign that has been started and is led by the teens who have experienced and witnessed sexual harassment and assault in the community. They decry the lack of responsiveness by school administrators and seek to end victim blaming.
