(NewsNation) — The Memphis Police Department chief disbanded the city’s so-called Scorpion Unit on Saturday, citing a “cloud of dishonor” from videos released that showed some of its officers beating Tyre Nichols to death after stopping the Black motorist.

“Scorpion” is an acronym for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods.

The specialized police group included the five officers charged in Nichols’ death.

Robin Dreeke, a retired FBI special agent, told NewsNation he thought it was a “really strong and a good” decision to remove and disband the unit.

“Anytime a human being or community loses trust and confidence in the feeling of safety, the first thing you need to do in order to restore it is to remove the thing that actually made them feel unsafe,” Dreeke said. “This unit, although it was set up for a noble purpose to get rid of the most heinous and escalating crime-ridden areas of the city, the execution of it was exceptionally poor, obviously.

The Scorpion Squad is a specialized unit started in 2021 to fight crime by targeting problem areas in the city and flooding them with officers. They often work undercover in unmarked cars.

The Memphis Police created the Scorpion Unit in the fall of 2021. It consisted of a unit of four 10-person teams focused on violent-crime reduction in the city’s crime “hot spots.”

Protesters marching though downtown Memphis Saturday cheered when they heard the unit had been dissolved. One protester said over a bullhorn that, “The unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded.”

Attorneys for the Nichols family reacted with a statement saying the move was “appropriate and proportional to the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, and also a decent and just decision for all citizens of Memphis.”

The statement also said, “We hope that other cities take similar action with their saturation police units in the near future to begin to create greater trust in their communities.”

The Nichols family had previously called for the disbanding of the Scorpion Unit.

“The police chief should disband the Scorpion Unit immediately,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing Nichols’ family, said before the release of police bodycam video, “Other citizens have come to my office and said their constitutional right was violated by the Scorpion unit.”