Editor’s note: After initial publication, The Daily Memphian amended the 2023 homicide total to include the death of a three-year-old boy who died days after he was shot on Dec. 31.

Memphis ended the year 2023 with 398 homicides, breaking the city’s 2021 homicide record by more than 50 additional killings. 

Memphis’ 2023 homicide total was a 32% increase from 2022, when there were 301 people killed, according to Memphis Police Department data. During 2021, 346 people were killed in Memphis. 

The increase has led to citizen concerns across the board. 

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Ephie Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Neighborhood Christian Centers Inc., recently conducted focus groups with youth in the organization’s programming. She said the young people she talked to were extremely concerned about crime. 

“We have children that are under our responsibility now. How do we change and make the experiences they have, wherever we can, be positive?” Johnson said. 

Keith Leachman, founder of Stop the Killing Cut the Beef Community Development, said people committing violence are taking things too far. 

“It could be a small understanding in returning the beef,” Leachman said. “They’re not respecting life. So I feel like the system needs to be a little tougher on death. You take a life, it just might be yours, buddy.”

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Memphis Mayor Paul Young, who was sworn in Jan. 1, said during his inauguration that the city is struggling with violent crime and that “senseless violence” has affected the way Memphians carry out their daily lives. 

“The city we love feels like it’s in a crisis,” he said. “Families are mourning the pain and loss of loved ones from senseless violence, the chaos that’s taken a toll on our collective psyche. And it threatens to derail all of the progress and promise of what Memphis can be.”

In an email sent by Young Dec. 15, the new Memphis mayor said MPD Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis shared with him plans for a repeat offenders initiative, which will identify and apprehend reoffenders.

“Our crime stats show that 20% of the criminal population is committing 80% of the crime,” Young said. “Some of you may have read the recent positive headline out of New Orleans — no homicides in the first 11 days of December — they attribute that in part to a stricter repeat offenders initiative as well as harsher penalties for those committing gun crimes.”

But Young said MPD cannot combat homicides on its own.

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Young is also working to identify a public safety task force director who will serve as a primary point person on public safety. The task force director will work with Davis, Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy and other community partners on a coordinated response. 

Some of the city’s nonprofits are working on solutions, as well. 

The NCC is developing new programming to increase youths’ positive childhood experiences, such as playing sports or quality family time, and continuing its existing Thank You program, which teaches dinner etiquette. A new ancestry program aims to connect youth to the past. 

“So many of the kids, the only thing that they have is looking to a future, but they don’t have a past that they look to,” said JoeAnn Ballard, the founder of NCC who is guiding out the ancestry program.

Leachman said his organization will propose a new deal with the City of Memphis to get rid of blight in Orange Mound. The program, he said, will give convicted felons a second chance or “an outlet” by having them combat blight. 

“When you take the guy who’s a part of the problem in his city ... and you make them busy men instead of gang coordinators, you ... enhance their growth development in the community and develop the community at the same time.”

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Leachman said he wants the city to do better as a whole.

“I want them to understand that we can be better Memphians if we think positive, react positive, think before you act,” Leachman said. “And we must beat that record in the opposite direction.”