President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize Memphis, Tenn., is showing early signs of success, with crime rates falling as thousands of federal agents carry out arrests.
Following his earlier efforts to restore order in Washington, D.C., Trump announced in early September that the National Guard would be deployed to Memphis. He also established a joint task force bringing together the FBI, ATF, and Department of Justice to coordinate a citywide crime crackdown that began on Sept. 29.
As of Thursday, authorities have made 2,213 arrests as part of Trump’s federal crime crackdown in Memphis, according to a daily police report obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller. The operation has so far resulted in the capture of 139 known gang members, the seizure of 379 firearms, and the recovery of 97 missing children.
“The numbers clearly show that Memphis is safer thanks to President Trump’s federal surge,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told the Caller in a statement.
Our agents from the FBI, DEA, US Marshals, and ATF have done incredible work alongside HSI and local police to combat violent crime and restore safety to an iconic American city. Tolerating crime is a choice, and this Department of Justice chooses law and order,” she added.
On Thursday, 1,639 federal agents representing 31 agencies were deployed across Memphis as part of the ongoing federal crime crackdown, according to a daily police report obtained by The Daily Caller. Additional personnel are expected to join the effort on Friday.
The operation included the arrest of a suspect wanted for attempted first-degree murder, the report shows. A day earlier, another individual was taken into custody on a warrant for second-degree murder. Other notable arrests from Wednesday’s sweep included a suspect charged with rape of a child, aggravated sexual battery, and incest.
The Memphis Police Department continues to publish crime data on the city’s website, covering incidents from Oct. 1 — the day after the operation began — through the present. A 2024 column lists comparable data from the same period last year, according to an administration official who spoke with the outlet.
Since the start of Trump’s federal crackdown, murders in Memphis have declined by 52.38% compared to the same period last year, according to city data. The report also shows significant drops across multiple categories: sexual assaults are down 55.56%, robberies 65.82%, burglaries 33.98%, and aggravated assaults 47.30%.
Motor vehicle thefts have fallen even more sharply — down 79.79% year over year. Overall, crime across those major categories has decreased by 46.65%.
On Friday, an additional 158 members of the National Guard were expected to deploy to assist in the ongoing cleanup operation, the outlet reported, citing an official document.
National Guard troops, as members of the US military, are not authorized to conduct law enforcement actions and make arrests. But they do provide material support for federal agents and act as force multipliers to keep federal facilities secure.
One month after President Trump launched his crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Daily Caller that the president is open to partnering with Republican governors to combat rising crime in Democrat-led cities.
“Democrats have tried to argue that red states have higher crime rates while overlooking problems of high crime in blue cities. I’m wondering if the president would consider working with red state governors to fix high crime in blue cities, like in Memphis, Tennessee,” asked Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese during a recent press conference.
“The President wants to work with anyone across this country who wants to end these horrible policies and to bring law and order to our streets, and I think that is proven by his tremendous cooperation with the mayor of Washington, D.C., and our nation’s capital, and just look at the results of that,” the press secretary responded.
