MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The federal and state officers sent to Memphis a year ago are not leaving any time soon. At a roundtable on Friday marking the first anniversary of the Memphis Safe Task Force, Justice Department leader Todd Blanche said Washington plans to keep putting people and money into the effort, and no end date was offered.
Blanche led the session with U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Task force leaders said overall crime in the city is down 34 percent compared with a year ago and murders have fallen 33 percent. Blanche put the arrest total at more than 13,500, including roughly 1,500 people identified as gang members.
Other figures came from outside policing. A Regional One doctor, Andrew Sloas, said hospitals have seen firearm trauma cases drop by about 30 percent. U.S. Marshals Service Director Gady Serralta said the task force has found and recovered 196 missing or endangered children.
The surge began when President Donald Trump sent personnel from a long list of federal agencies, along with National Guard troops, at the request of Gov. Bill Lee. The Memphis Police Department has done much of the coordinating, and Police Chief C.J. Davis was the only city official at the table Friday. Before the roundtable, the Tennessee Highway Patrol had been the only outside agency Davis described as staying for the long haul.
Not everyone is convinced. Critics have questioned having Tennessee National Guard members in Memphis neighborhoods, and local numbers show crime was already trending down in the period before the task force arrived, a pattern seen in many U.S. cities after pandemic-era peaks.
Section: More Memphis TN crime news
Filed under: Memphis TN Public Safety News
