Scorpion stands for “Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods”.
In a statement, the department said “it is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate” the unit.
“While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud of dishonour on the title Scorpion, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department, take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted,” it added.
“The unit that murdered Tyre has been permanently disbanded,” a protester shouted into a megaphone in Memphis and the crowd erupted into cheers.
“Memphis is taking a stand,” said Casio Montez, one of the protest organisers. “This means we’re doing something right.”
In an interview with BBC News on Friday, Chief Davis said the Scorpion unit was created to be “more responsive” and “more proactive” to gun violence in the city. But she acknowledged that the officers who brutally beat Tyre Nichols “decided to go off the rails”.
“We are doing an individual evaluation of all units,” she said. “This is a necessary step. We want to be fully transparent to the community.”
“This is not an issue of corruption in the United States, this is an issue of the fact that the system has been built against black bodies,” she said. If the system is broken, she added, the only way to fix it is to start again.
