Written by Marsha Blackburn
U.S. Senator
Washington, D.C. – One year ago on Tuesday, Tennessee marked an incredible milestone: the one-year anniversary of President Trump signing the memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force. Since then, this historic, iconic city has transformed for the better.
Just two years ago, Memphis was the most dangerous city in America, suffering the nation’s highest violent crime rate. To get this crisis under control, I met with now-FBI Director Kash Patel ahead of his Senate confirmation vote and urged him to surge federal law enforcement to the city.
During last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, I had the chance to talk with Director Patel about all that the task force has accomplished—and the numbers speak for themselves.
Within the last year, overall crime has fallen 36 percent, with burglaries and aggravated assaults down 27 percent, robberies down 43 percent, shoplifting down 44 percent, motor vehicle thefts down 57 percent, and murders down 35 percent. By coordinating operations among more than two-dozen local, state, and federal agencies, the Task Force has made more than 12,800 arrests, recovered more than 2,100 illegal firearms, apprehended more than 1,400 known gang members, and located 189 missing children.
The criminals getting taken off Memphis streets are among the worst of the worst. Just on Thursday, the Task Force made 26 arrests, including for two men charged with second-degree murder, one charged with possession of firearms during the commission of a dangerous felony, and another charged with assault with a weapon.
It’s important to note that ICE has been a huge part of the success of the Task Force. As of July, there were close to 900 ICE arrests in Shelby County since the launch of the Task Force—with 536 ending in deportation. Many of these illegal aliens have lengthy criminal records. In a single raid on a Memphis nightclub in August, ICE agents arrested more than 120 illegal aliens, including those with histories of domestic violence, assault, child endangerment, driving while intoxicated, larceny, and prostitution. Memphis is safer with these criminals off our streets and out of our country.
Thanks to the Task Force, downtown Memphis is being reinvigorated with new businesses and restaurants. Crowds are returning to Grizzlies games and Beale Street. And many Memphians feel safe in their own homes for the first time in years.
As one Memphis mother recently put it, the Task Force has brought “long-awaited peace and quiet.” “Neighborhood blocks that had grown used to constant crime went weeks without gunfire,” wrote Dalisia Ballinger, who nearly lost her son to a shooting outside her home. “This year, for the first time in six years, my family celebrated a birthday in our own backyard.”
It should come as no surprise that the Trump administration is hoping to replicate Memphis’s success across the country. This summer, the Justice Department announced its Model Cities Initiative, which will bring the Memphis Safe Task Force blueprint to cities nationwide and distribute $300 million in public safety funding. Every American should applaud this initiative, and I look forward to working with the administration to ensure that Tennessee has all the resources it needs to continue to combat crime.
The Memphis Safe Task Force has confirmed a simple fact: When you enforce the law, crime goes down—and communities can thrive. Every Tennessean deserves to live in safety, and the Memphis Safe Task Force has helped make that a reality in just one year.
