Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, reports that Memphis has experienced a dramatic and rapid improvement in public safety following the deployment of the Memphis Safe Task Force, the joint state, federal, and local initiative authorized under President Donald Trump.
Since launching in late September, the task force has made over 3,600 arrests, contributing to a 45 percent reduction in crime and a significant decrease in police calls. The operation has also recovered hundreds of stolen vehicles, seized over 500 firearms, and located more than 120 missing children.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has since verified these results, confirming that the city is genuinely safer and now seeing its lowest crime levels since 2001.
“Memphis really is getting safer and is getting safer because of President Donald Trump and the Memphis Safe Task Force,” Pappert said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert noted that Memphis’ turnaround began earlier in the year when the FBI surged resources into the city after identifying it as the nation’s homicide capital.
“It started in May when FBI Director Kash Patel said Memphis is the homicide capital of the country, this is unacceptable. He announced they were going to surge FBI assets to the city. That’s when the water began to recede in terms of the high crime rate, and then once the Memphis Safe Task Force hit the city running, I think it’s gone very fast,” Pappert said.
Pappert, however, noted that while Memphis Mayor Paul Young has accepted the task force’s presence, local lawmakers – including State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) and State Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis) – warn that sustaining progress will depend on whether state-level prosecutions continue effectively, particularly under Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
He cited allegations that Mulroy has worked with restorative-justice activist groups and has made controversial decisions that allow dangerous offenders to avoid proper consequences.
“This is a guy who allegedly colluded with the prosecutor and a judge to let a guy out of prison, without telling the victims that they needed to show up and testify whether they liked it or didn’t like it. This is a guy who works with not one, not two, but I’m pretty sure it’s three different restorative justice groups. These are the activists who say that you can never put anybody in jail for any time no matter what, because it’s going to hurt the community,” Pappert explained.
“So it’s a real concern, and I think that the people of Memphis need to know that this is in the future,” he added.
Pappert detailed a legal challenge to the task force’s use of the Tennessee National Guard, who, among the plaintiffs, is Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, arguing Governor Bill Lee lacked authority to deploy the Guard because the situation did not meet the threshold of an emergency.
A Davidson County chancery judge – whom Pappert characterized as a “radical leftist” – issued an injunction blocking the Guard’s participation, though that injunction has been stayed pending appeal.
Pappert said he expects the appellate court to overturn it.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Memphis Safe Task Force” by Memphis Safe Task Force.
