President Donald J. Trump’s administration marked the first anniversary of the Memphis Safe Task Force on September 15, 2026, reporting 12,747 arrests from a coordinated federal, state and local enforcement operation. The White House said overall crime in Memphis was down nearly 36% from last year and that the city was on pace for a 25-year low.
Trump created the task force one year earlier and directed more than 30 federal, state and local agencies to coordinate arrests, clear warrants, seize illegal firearms and increase enforcement activity in Memphis neighborhoods. The September 15 White House release attributed the reported declines to that effort, but it did not provide underlying data, methodology or an independent assessment of the task force’s effect.
According to the administration, murders fell 36%, sexual assaults declined 28%, motor vehicle thefts dropped 57%, robberies decreased 42%, shoplifting fell 44% and aggravated assaults declined 26%. The White House also reported that violent crime across Shelby County was down more than 30% and major property crime was down more than 40%.
The task force’s 12,747 reported arrests included 131 for homicide, 1,363 for narcotics, 1,276 for firearms violations and 125 for sex offenses. The administration also reported the arrests of 1,408 known gang members, the removal of 2,160 illegal firearms from city streets and the recovery of 189 missing children.
The White House said the latest figures followed a decline in 2025 compared with 2024, when overall crime fell 28%, murders declined 26% and robberies dropped 31%. Memphis recorded fewer than 200 murders in 2025 for the first time since 2019, according to the release.
The administration contrasted those figures with conditions in 2024, when it said Memphis had the highest violent crime rate and property crime rate in the United States. The White House also said the city’s murder rate exceeded those of Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., while its overall crime rate was 344% above the national average.