President Trump heads Monday to Memphis as a sharp decline in killings, muggings and assaults resulting from his federal crime-fighting push has turned around the Southern city long dogged by violence.
The Memphis Safe Task Force has racked up more than 7,000 arrests and seized close to 1,200 firearms since the operation began six months ago, according to a dedicated dashboard on the surge’s progress, with federal, state and local law enforcement teaming up with the National Guard.
Those results are bearing fruit on the streets. Task force data show that violent crime fell by 43%, with murder (down 36%), robberies (down 56%) and aggravated assaults (down 34%) all seeing declines when compared to the same six-month period a year earlier.
Proponents of Mr. Trump’s mission said the effort has brought about a generational drop in crime.
“Crime in Memphis has reached a 25-year low, and it’s because of President Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in September and the tremendous work the Memphis Safe Task Force has done since,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, posted on X. “I’m grateful to have worked with the President to help make this happen, and together, we’ll continue to fight to make Memphis the safest city in America.”
Memphis has reversed course after a major spike in violence just three years ago.
The city saw a record-high 397 killings in 2023, and was one of the few cities whose pandemic-era crime waves had refused to subside.
But after a slight decline in 2024, slayings in Memphis plummeted to 184 last year.
How much credit Mr. Trump deserves for improving crime numbers remains up for debate.
Memphis police touted a 25-year low in killings in early September — about three weeks before Mr. Trump launched the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Local lawmakers, such as state Sen. Brent Taylor, argued that quibbling over who is responsible for the crime decline misses the point.
“Just because [crime] was trending downward anyway, it was not going down fast enough,” the Shelby County Republican told WATN-TV. “The thing that the Memphis Safe Task Force was able to do that that slow, downward trend was never able to do, was to change people’s perception about crime.”
Mr. Taylor also introduced legislation that would require Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy to submit a report to the attorney general anytime his office offers a plea deal for a felony suspect, downgrades the offense or dismisses charges against the defendant.
Mr. Mulroy, who was elected in 2022 and supported by left-wing billionaire George Soros, has faced heat from state lawmakers before after proposing to eliminate prison sentences for some people convicted of felony gun offenses.
