PERSON: Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis

Chief

Cerelyn “C. J.” Davis (born 1959 or 1960) is an American police officer who is the 13th chief of police for the Memphis Police Department. Davis is Memphis Police Department’s first Black female chief.

Davis was born in Fort Bragg into a military family.

Davis has a degree in criminal justice from Saint Leo University, graduating in 1998 after starting her studies at Georgia Military College, and a master’s degree public administration from Central Michigan University.

Davis joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1986. She was demoted, then fired from the Atlanta police department in 2008 for her alleged involvement in a sex crimes investigation into the husband of an Atlanta police sergeant, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. She was reinstated following an appeal process. That same year, O, The Oprah Magazine, identified Davis as one of eighty women forming the O White House Leadership Project, Women Rule! Davis became deputy chief of the Atlanta Police Department, and in 2016, became chief of the Durham Police Department in North Carolina. Davis has served as president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. In 2020, Davis appeared on Good Morning America, where she called for “sweeping changes and police reform” following the murder of George Floyd.

She was sworn in as the Memphis police chief in 2021. Davis is the Memphis Police Department’s first Black female chief, she is also the first female police chief of Memphis.

In January 2023, Davis described the killing of Tyre Nichols as a “defining moment” in the Memphis Police Department’s history. She terminated the employment of five police officers associated with Nichols’ death.

Davis is married and has one daughter and two grandchildren. She was aged 60 in October 2020. As of 2020, she lived in Durham.

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