Memphis City Council members received another positive update from the Memphis Police Department at a committee meeting Tuesday, Aug. 18, noting a sharp decline in the city’s crime rate that continues a three-year trend.
Crime dropped by nearly half in July 2026, falling to 2,517 reported incidents from 5,111 in July 2024. Almost 700 crimes have been reported this month through Aug. 9, down from roughly 1,300 for the same period in 2024.
“It’s the mid-part of the month, but we are still trending in the right direction as far as crimes,” said police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis.
Overall, crime has dropped between 28% and 44% in the city’s nine police precincts. Murder, robbery, sexual assault, burglaries and motor vehicle theft continue to fall. Larceny-theft rates have also fallen, but remain a glaring problem with 9,113 reported property crimes this year.
“Right now, we’re at about 3,900 fewer calls for the month of August,” said Davis.
The decrease in crime can be attributed, in part, to a national post-pandemic trend. During the lockdown, many at-risk youth were deprived of the stability and structure provided by schools that remained closed for months. For some youngsters, negative influences filled the void. Now, three years later, cities across the nation are experiencing similar drops in crime rates, many returning to pre-pandemic levels.
The city is also bolstered by the Safe Memphis Task Force, a multi-agency law enforcement initiative established by a presidential memorandum signed on Sept. 15, 2025. The task force is staffed with personnel from local police, mobilized members of the Tennessee National Guard and 13 federal agencies, including the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Since operations began, the task force has made more than 10,000 arrests. A significant portion of these arrests were traffic stops by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. According to Davis, state troopers are the most effective “force multiplier.”
“That takes our folks off the interstate from having to respond to all the accidents that occur, manage our interstates … and having those resources deployed in the community,” said Davis.
Davis would like state police support to continue after the task force is eventually dismantled. She has received reassurances that they will keep working with her department, she said.
“If that promise is kept, we look forward to continuing to manage the city like we did before the task force came,” said Davis.
“It’s the mid-part of the month, but we are still trending in the right direction as far as crimes. Right now, we’re at about 3,900 fewer calls for the month of August.”
Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis
For some on the council, the return to normalcy occurs only when the National Guard’s mission has concluded. About 700 to 800 part-time guard troops were deployed to the city by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. Unlike other task force agencies, the role of the unarmed guard troops is to symbolize public order and convey a calming presence. Signs of trouble are supposed to be reported by guard members to MPD or its agency partners.
Last weekend, guard members allegedly violated their established protocols. Patrons at a club in the Hickory Hill community were allegedly held inside until they showed ID and were searched. When asked about the incident by council member Jerri Green, Davis said the incident was part of an organized crime unit operation.
“If the National Guard was there, they should have been doing nothing but maintaining parking lots and the perimeter,” said Davis.
Green, a criminal defense attorney who is the Democratic nominee for Tennessee governor, asked Davis to look into the matter.
“I am wary still of the National Guard assisting you on these types of interventions, because I know the training your officers get, and they know when they can arrest and when they can’t arrest. They have different training than soldiers. Very different,” said Green. “They know how to de-escalate. This got escalated very quickly.”
It costs the state over $900,000 per day to deploy guard members to Memphis. Some on the council said the money would be better spent elsewhere. Others said more effective “force multipliers” are available at a much cheaper rate.
Still, the city ranks number one nationally for violent crime and overall crime, based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program that publishes voluntary crime reports from law enforcement agencies across the country. But some cities, such as Los Angeles, California, do not regularly submit crime data to the FBI, leaving national crime rankings incomplete.
After the police chief’s crime update, council members listened to a presentation by BLOC Squad and Heal 901, both anti-violence nonprofits, seeking a combined $12.3 million to fund gun violence prevention initiatives.
Yet, unlike the task force, these nonprofits look to intervene before violence happens. Much of their work is done in hospital emergency rooms, where mentors attempt to counsel family, friends or fellow gang members of shooting victims to prevent retaliation.
Heal 901, founded in 2018, also provides access to mental health services and youth leadership development programs.
“When our team is active, you’re going to see a 46% reduction in the areas that we serve,” said Durell Cowan, director of the community-based organization. “The moment that we get off shift, you’re going to see this uptick.”
Heal 901 is seeking $10 million from the council, after losing state funding. Its eight full-time and four part-time team members operate on a budget of about $700,000. With full funding, the organization could expand its full-time staff to 30 and offer health benefits. If it remains underfunded, its mentors could lose their jobs.
“Remember, every murder costs us $10 million. For the cost of one murder, we can fund this entire operation, said council member Jeff Warren. “And that’s minimal, but we are not even doing minimal yet.”
For its part, BLOC Squad, founded in 2012, is seeking $2.3 million to expand operations and focus on reducing gun violence for at-risk youth and neighborhood revitalization. Previous funding levels reached $1.5 million.
“We definitely need to fund these important services as we move forward as a city. But we also need to put pressure at the capital that has the money and is wasting those resources … doing more harm than good in the community by putting soldiers in fatigues on our streets,” said Green. “They could fund this within 12 days if they wanted to.”
