As concerns about immigration-related Memphis Safe Task Force arrests ramp up, the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday, Oct. 28, for an emergency plan and expanded bus services to help students travel safely to and from campus.

The resolution came after nearly 20 Latino and immigrant advocates requested the board pass resolutions protecting and distancing students from Task Force operations, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Expanding buses is the absolute bare minimum that we can do at this moment to protect our vulnerable children,” said Richard Massey, an advocate and University of Memphis student, during public comments.

The approved resolution allows Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond to develop the emergency plan, which expands bus service eligibility to students who live within established parent responsibility zones. The current parent responsibility zones — or borders that require parents or guardians to be responsible for their children’s transportation to and from school — are 1.5 miles from the school for elementary students and 2 miles for middle and high school students.

President Donald Trump last week called off his planned federal law enforcement surge in San Francisco, a move that was noticed locally by activists pushing Memphis Mayor Paul Young to oppose the Memphis Safe Task Force.

Trump talked in glowing terms about the Memphis Safe Task Force Friday, Oct. 24, as he announced the San Francisco campaign was not happening. He did not mention crime in the city was trending down significantly across all major categories before the federal law enforcement effort officially launched Sept. 29. 

“The numbers are down in half already and it’s only been about two weeks. … It was a very sick city, it was horrible what happened there,” Trump said. “If you were on the board of FedEx, they would ride you one block to the hotel. They said you couldn’t walk it because it was too dangerous, and they are already feeling better about it.”

Trump has previously cited the FedEx board member’s allegation in his formal move to deploy the Tennessee National Guard and send the federal law enforcement agencies to Memphis. 

The federal agency leading the Memphis Safe Task Force appears to no longer be reporting the number of immigration-related arrests made as part of the federal-state-local law enforcement surge.

As recently as Oct. 16, The Daily Memphian was receiving the number of “administrative,” or immigration-related, arrests from a U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson, along with arrest totals for other categories.

That day, task force officers had made a cumulative 181 administrative arrests since the task force began Sept. 29, accounting for about 19% of the task force's total arrests at the time. 

In subsequent requests for data, USMS has omitted immigration-related arrest totals while still providing numbers for total arrests made, warrants served and firearms seized, among other categories. 

Last week, Venezuelan restaurant Sabor Caribe took to social media and asked Memphians to continue supporting local businesses such as theirs. 

The video, recorded in Spanish, included this translation: “Recent police operations across the city have deeply affected small businesses like Sabor Caribe.”

But that isn’t true across the board. The impact of the Memphis Safe Task Force’s law enforcement surge on locally owned eateries varies. Some restaurants say there has been little to no change in their sales since the Task Force arrived in Memphis, while others are experiencing dramatic declines on par with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been deeply affected in a very negative way by everything that’s happening,” said Alejandro Romero, general manager of the Edge District’s Sabor Caribe and the person in the restaurant’s social media post. “The sales have dropped like 60% or 70% in the last 15 days.”

The line outside the Whitehaven Shelby County Clerk’s Office location had recently moved inside when one customer walked out with a new plate. He walked over to his car, a black Nissan Maxima, turned on some music and began replacing his two-month-expired drive-out tags. 

In-person visits to a county clerk’s office for registration- and renewal-related transactions tend to surge once each month, according to data Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert shared in recent emails to media. 

October has seemed to follow most of the same trends as the rest of 2025. But the number of people coming to renew expired car tags has jumped since the Memphis Safe Task Force arrived in the city, Halbert’s data shows. On most days in October, the number of people renewing expired tags has been higher than the busiest days in previous months this year.

Halbert’s chart shows “a January to now trend of late renewals doubling after the taskforce arrived,” she wrote to media. 

Rev. Noel Hutchinson called the Tennessee National Guard’s deployment to Memphis “a smokescreen” for an “occupation” by federal law enforcement.

Hutchinson also called the deployment “illegal and immoral” during a Friday, Oct. 24, gathering of faith leaders, local business owners, and local college students. The event at First Baptist Church Lauderdale was hosted by Free the 901, an effort opposing the Memphis Safe Task Force’s methods.

Several speakers called for Memphis Mayor Paul Young to “do more.”

“There are absolutely things the mayor can be doing better. One, being honest,” Memphis for All Executive Director Tikeila Rucker said. “One, being transparent about the amount of power and control he really has while he is at the table with the people in the community wanting to align with him.”

Two critics of the city’s strategy of working with the Memphis Safe Task Force say it is untenable and the federal effort isn’t abiding by the promises made to Mayor Paul Young and his administration.

Josh Spickler, executive director of the criminal-justice-reform group Just City, agrees other local officials’ legal challenge to the Tennessee National Guard presence is separate from the federal, state and local law enforcement surge that began two weeks ago — before the guard’s deployment.

“The National Guard issue is more of a foundational, existential challenge,” Spickler said on the podcast version of the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines.”

“Can we coexist with 1,500 additional law enforcement agents?” Spickler said. “Not in the way they are being used currently because the way they are being used currently is just a massive dragnet operation. … People are being disappeared from the streets of Memphis right now, whether it’s at the 201 Poplar jail or into (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody.”

Memphis City Council member JB Smiley Jr. said he’s been asked by some Memphians why he and other elected officials are suing the State of Tennessee about the local deployment of National Guard troops.

“The question for me was: ‘Why fight when they already control the courts and they’ve turned back long-standing precedents?’” Smiley said about the Republican supermajority in state government. “I’m not someone who is willing to bow down just because folks say the road is going to be difficult.”

Smiley, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Shelby County mayor in the May 2026 county primaries, is among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenges Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee’s authority to deploy the guard to Memphis. He and other plaintiffs gathered Wednesday, Oct. 22, to talk about a scheduled Nov. 3 hearing on the matter in Davidson County Chancery Court. 

The lawsuit remains focused on the guard presence and not on the state and federal law enforcement agencies that make up most of the Memphis Safe Task Force and are guided by federal officials, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said.

The City of Memphis has launched a new data dashboard to publicize statistics surrounding the Memphis Safe Task Force.

And the Task Force, which officially started operating on Sept. 29, appears to be having a significant impact on local crime rates. 

According to the city’s data, the reporting of serious crimes — a category compiled from seven crime classifications — is down 45% so far in October. There were 1,534 serious crimes reported in the first 20 days of October, compared to 2,786 in the same period in 2024.

(The seven crimes included in that number are murder, aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, larceny and motor-vehicle theft.)

The latest arm of the local criminal justice system to be overwhelmed by the Memphis Safe Task Force appears to be the federal public defender’s office.

The Daily Memphian obtained an Oct. 17 letter from federal Magistrate Judge Jon York in which he said the law enforcement surge is “straining” the office.

York wrote the letter to member attorneys of the local Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel, a group of defense attorneys who take appointments to represent defendants facing federal charges when the public defender’s office is not able.

“The Court will be heavily relying upon the CJA panel to provide indigent representation for the foreseeable future,” York’s letter reads.

The City of Memphis was not asked to join a pending lawsuit against Gov. Bill Lee seeking to end the Tennessee National Guard deployment to the city.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and Tikeila Rucker of Free the 901 and Memphis For All made the point Monday, Oct. 20, as activist groups opposed to the guard presence and critical of the policing methods being used in the law enforcement surge announced their solidarity with the lawsuit.

“There was no option given to the City of Memphis,” Harris said.

Harris, City Council member JB Smiley Jr. and several other activists and elected officials filed the suit in Davidson County Chancery Court last week. Chancellor Patricia Moskal denied a preliminary injunction, and a hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 3.

Gov. Bill Lee’s administration defended the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis, Monday, Oct. 20, and said the administration is “confident” it will win in court. 

“Every Memphian deserves to feel safe in their community, and through state, local, and federal partnerships, the Memphis Safe Task Force has created a generational opportunity that is already delivering remarkable results to enhance public safety. We are confident the court will uphold the Governor’s constitutional authority,” Elizabeth Lane Johnson, Lee’s press secretary, said in a statement. 

The statement from Lee’s administration follows Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, two Shelby County commissioners, a Memphis City council member and three state legislators suing Lee, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Major General Warner Ross III on Friday.

The lawsuit said Lee exceeded his authority under the Tennessee Constitution and did not deploy the guard with permission of the Tennessee General Assembly or any request from the Shelby County Commission or the Memphis City Council. The suit argues that either legislative approval or a local request for assistance is required by state law and the Tennessee Constitution. 

The surge of state and federal law enforcement in the city and the reactions to the surge are becoming more complicated politically as the line separating the surge from the reactions to it starts to blur at the three-week mark.

The weekend developments included:

A pending lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court over Governor Bill Lee’s deployment of the National Guard to Memphis. The lawsuit’s coalition of local elected leaders as plaintiffs lost its bid Friday, Oct. 10 for a temporary injunction to bar the Guard pending a full court hearing on the matter.

Mayor Paul Young standing by his strategy of engagement with state and federal elected leaders backing the surge even as Young is expressing concerns specifically about the surge of immigration agents into certain neighborhoods and allegations of profiling by those agents.

Editor’s Note: After the initial publication of this story, the City of Memphis said it would not be joining the lawsuit. It has also been updated with a Davidson County Chancellor’s ruling. 

A combination of state and local leaders have sued Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee about the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis.

According to a copy of the complaint, Shelby County Commissioners Erika Sugarmon and Henri Brooks, Memphis City Council member JB Smiley Jr., State representatives Gabby Salinas and G.A. Hardaway of Memphis, State Sen. Jeff Yarbro and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris have sued Lee in Davidson County Chancery Court about the deployment of the guard.

The lawsuit does not involve the City of Memphis government, which will not be joining the suit. 

Federal agents have made 181 immigration-related arrests since the beginning of the Memphis Safe Task Force, according to a spokesperson for its lead agency, the U.S. Marshals Service.

But local activists gathered in front of city hall Friday morning disputed those numbers, saying they are much higher based on what they are hearing from the community. 

Jazmin Berlanga with Vecindarios 901, a local group that has been sharing information about federal immigration enforcement activity in Memphis, said it had confirmed 279 arrests as of Tuesday, which would have been day 16 of the task force that officially started Sept. 29.

“Our immigrant neighbors are not under siege by who we were originally told. We are under siege by our own government,” Berlanga said. 

Law enforcement officers and federal agents have made hundreds of arrests in the city since the launch of the Memphis Safe Task Force at the tail end of last month. 

But those arrests have also caused an increase in the number of inmates at the Shelby County Jail, also known as 201 Poplar, exacerbating long-standing overcrowding issues at the facility. 

Documents obtained by The Daily Memphian show that on Oct. 1, the jail population was 2,643 at its lowest count that day. As of Thursday afternoon, Oct. 16, there were 2,911 people booked into the jail, according to a spokesperson for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, representing an increase of about 10%. The jail’s population fluctuates throughout the day.

In September, the average daily population was 2,804, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The jail’s stated capacity is 2,400 inmates.

Mayor Paul Young says he is trying to better understand how federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are operating as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force. And he’s also trying to steer the surge of state and federal law enforcement in the city more toward violent crime.

“Our goal is to make sure that as this task force is working that we are trying to direct them toward the things and the work that we have already been doing,” Young said in an interview recorded Thursday, Oct. 16, on the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines.” The episode will air Friday.

“We have homicides that have been unsolved, and there are resources in this task force that can help us. We want to make sure that we are clearing the warrants that we have,” he said. “We have at least 30 homicide suspects that we know of. We want to make sure that as this task force is here that we are using it to go out there and get the drivers of violent crime in our city.”

How many arrests and the types of offenses involved are still being sorted. The surge in arrests and the paperwork generated across multiple jurisdictions is also proving to be a challenge, Young said.

A routine traffic stop turned into a high-speed chase that ended in a crash into a local high school.

Cameron Ross, 35, was arrested Oct. 7 after leading a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper on a chase that ended with his car colliding into KIPP Memphis Collegiate High in North Memphis. 

Ross was arrested with help from Homeland Security and Internal Revenue Service agents, both which are present in the city as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force.

Ross is one of at least 27 people who have been arrested by state troopers after leading them on pursuits since the task force began, according to arrest reports reviewed by The Daily Memphian. Several of those chases have ended in crashes. 

New data from the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission shows a sustained decline in crime through the first nine months of 2025.

The total number of overall crime offenses in the city is down 16.3% so far this year compared to the same period in 2024, according to the crime commission’s data. When compared to the first three quarters of 2023, overall crimes are down 25%.

The Memphis Safe Task Force officially launched Sept. 29, just two days before the start of the fourth quarter. The crime data from the first three quarters of the year reveals where the city’s crime rate stood before the federal law enforcement saturation.

Both major violent and major property crimes in Memphis saw similar declines.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says his administration is considering legal action to halt any unlawful and unconstitutional arrests and traffic stops conducted by the Memphis Safe Task Force.

Harris said Tuesday, Oct. 14, that he also considers the state’s deployment of the National Guard to Memphis as part of the Task Force to be illegal and that could also be included in any lawsuit that might be filed.

“We’ve heard stories from individuals, anecdotal accounts to be sure, that have made us uncomfortable,” he said.

The warning — and a preliminary look at general numbers on arrests and the reasons for them, which the MSTF provides — are part of what Harris termed a “nuanced” approach to the Task Force and its work.

There are more than 1,500 federal personnel in Memphis as part of President Donald Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force, the head of the U.S. Marshals Service told several reporters Tuesday, Oct. 14. 

Gadyaces Serralta, director of USMS, stated the number fluctuates daily, but there are approximately 1,500 federal personnel in the city as part of the task force. The Memphis Police Department, for comparison, currently has about 1,900 officers.

Serralta did not provide a breakdown of the number of people each federal agency had provided. He said the larger agencies had provided the most, and the smaller agencies had provided fewer. 

“They give us what they can give us. We’re very satisfied with the cooperation of every agency,” he said. “They come here to do the right thing for Memphis.” 

Editor’s Note: Bill Dries was a reporter at the time of the 1978 Memphis police and fire strikes. This story includes some of his reporting and memories of that time.

The centerpiece of one of the most photographed exhibits at the National Civil Rights Museum is a line of grim-faced sanitation workers carrying the iconic “I Am A Man” signs in 1968. 

In a line running parallel to the strikers are helmeted National Guard troops carrying rifles with bayonets attached. 

The strikers are all looking toward the horizon beyond the picket line; the guardsmen are looking at the strikers. 

Two weeks ago, organizers at the volunteer group Vecindarios901 — formed five years ago to help this city’s immigrant population — typically had one person answering the hotline set up to track immigration enforcement.

In the past week, the volume of calls those dispatchers answer has increased 10-fold to well more than 100 per day, said Maria Oceja, Vecindarios901 cofounder.

To handle the volume, Vecindarios901 has increased the number of hotline dispatchers to three per shift, or about 24 a day.

The information those dispatchers receive has led Vecindarios901 to increase the number of alerts it sends out about immigration enforcement from an average of five a day just a couple of weeks ago to well more than 50 a day now.

The Tennessee National Guard’s arrival in Memphis as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force appeared to start with some drink purchases at Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Downtown Memphis on Friday, Oct. 10.

Guard personnel were seen as early as 9:30 a.m. By 11 a.m., a trio of guardspeople walked away from the Pyramid and down Bass Pro Drive, underneath the green and red arched entrance sign that says: “Welcome to Sportsman’s Paradise.”

Inside the Pyramid, four guard personnel were in the lobby area near the entrance to the Bass Pro Shops. Some guard members appeared to be carrying side arms. Others did not. 

The personnel did not appear to be interacting with shoppers. They directed press inquiries to a spokesperson. One later purchased a blue Powerade. Some personnel later drove themselves out of the Pyramid parking lot in a charcoal-colored SUV.

The Tennessee National Guard will begin patrols in Memphis on Friday, Oct. 10, the City of Memphis said on its website Thursday, Oct.9. 

The date for guard patrols follows weeks of speculation, and the Tennessee National Guard saying Wednesday, Oct. 8 that it was currently in Memphis. 

It remains unclear how many guard personnel will be in the city. MPD Chief C.J. Davis has stated that the guard will serve as a deterrent in high-traffic areas. 

“I don’t think it’s going to be all of them. I think about half of them will be here,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told reporters. “We don’t know their specific assignments. Our team here is in direct communication with them. We should have more information in the (Friday) morning.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could authorize the use of up to 1,000 Tennessee National Guard troops for a whole year as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force.

Hegseth, in a letter to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee dated Sept. 23, said the use of the Tennessee National Guard could last until next fall.

The troops would be activated under Title 32 of the U.S. Code. That code keeps forces under the command of a state’s governor but means the federal government will pay for the operation. It could also enable the guard to be used in a law enforcement capacity.

“The Department of War (DoW) is prepared to authorize and fund the use of up to 1,000 Tennessee National Guard personnel in a duty status pursuant to title 32, U.S. Code, section 502(£), through September 30, 2026, in response to such a request,” Hegseth wrote to Lee in the letter obtained by The Daily Memphian. 

The U.S. Justice Department wants to put as many of the charges stemming from the Memphis Safe Task Force surge through the federal system, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said this week.

Bondi talked about the Memphis task force during a contentious oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee that saw her and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee target Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy.

“We’re going to protect the Memphis police officers. We are going to take every single case federally that we can, because the DA has cashless bail,” Bondi said in response to Blackburn.

“It’s a revolving door — and no one is being held accountable. Police officers are seeing someone arrested, and they are back out on the streets the next night committing crimes.”

Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis said Tuesday, Oct. 7, that there are likely more than 700 federal law enforcement personnel in the city as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force. 

The city’s chief law enforcement officer, in comments to the Memphis City Council, said the city has more than 700 “visitors” as part of the task force. An MPD spokesperson said later that there were 889 task force members in the city as of Monday, Oct. 6, and the number has fluctuated daily, averaging around 700. 

She said the first Tennessee National Guard deployments are expected by Friday, Oct. 10. Some commanders are already in town, planning the deployment, she said. 

“What we are working very hard to do — and we are communicating directly with the National Guard leadership — is to direct what activities we will have our servicemen and women involved in in our city, and much of that has nothing to do with direct law enforcement and public safety, more of visibility and hot spot areas, retail corridors, areas where there are sporting events, festivals and just that level of presence and deterrent,” Davis said. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the age requirement to possess a gun. 

One week into the Memphis Safe Task Force’s arrival in Memphis, federal, state and local law enforcement have flooded the city’s roadways. 

Hundreds of additional Tennessee Highway Patrol troops surged into the city as part of the task force, and reports by citizens on social media and elsewhere suggest a marked increase in traffic stops. 

The Memphis Safe Task Force officially launched last week, unleashing a swarm of federal, state and local law enforcement to crack down on crime.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is posting daily updates from the task force on X, updating the number of arrests officers have made since the task force began.

As of Sunday morning, Oct. 5, that number was 273. Bondi also said 73 illegal guns have been seized.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young is holding his position as the surge of state and federal law enforcement agencies into the city moved through its first week.

“I did not ask for this intervention. But I will remain at the table. I will stay in the room,” he wrote in his weekly email that went out Friday, Oct. 3. “Because that is what leadership requires: showing up, even when it is complicated, even when it is hard. Leadership means doing what is right for our entire community.”

The declaration comes at the end of the week as the surge began to take shape in neighborhoods across the city and on city streets.

It was also the week when federal officials continued to back Young’s approach but set different terms for the law enforcement presence in a Friday visit to rally those law enforcement officers at Shelby Farms Park.

More than 150 arrests have been made in the first week since the Memphis Safe Task Force was officially launched, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondi, who has been posting data daily from the task force on X, said Friday morning, Oct. 3, that law enforcement with the task force have made 153 arrests since it began. The task force officially began Monday. Bondi also said 48 illegal guns have been seized.

Bondi said those arrests include five gang members and that also five missing children have been found. 

Memphis NAACP wants ‘investment ... not occupation’

Bondi also said in a previous post Thursday that one of the arrests was of a Tren de Aragua “terrorist,” a Venezuelan gang member, and that a person was arrested for assaulting a federal officer.

NAACP Memphis Chapter President Kermit Moore voiced concerns Friday, Oct. 3, on the Tennessee National Guard Deployment and offered words of advice to the city.

In light of the Memphis Safe Task Force’s beginning operations this week, NAACP Chapter President Kermit Moore called on President Donald Trump and Gov. Bill Lee to invest in the city in other ways.

“We want you to treat Memphis with the respect and dignity it deserves,” Moore said at a news conference that included the Shelby County Democratic Party, the Memphis Urban League and Memphis and West Tennessee AFL-CIO. “We stand united, and we will not be silenced. We demand investment, and not occupation. We demand progress, not politics.” 

Memphis Urban League President and CEO Gale Jones Carson said they’re working to educate Memphians on what to do if they encounter federal agents. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller came to Memphis Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 1, to talk about an aggressive state and federal law enforcement presence in the city.

They talked with local, state and federal law enforcement leaders and officers in a pair of gatherings closed to the media, except for a pool video.

The gathering at Shelby Farms Park is the first presence by federal leaders in the city since the task force was formed in September. They were accompanied by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

The message from the three highly visible members of the Trump administration at the county’s Office of Preparedness Wednesday afternoon was that the task force presence will be visible and will have “zero tolerance” — in the words of Miller.

The law enforcement piece of the Memphis Safe Task Force that officially began this week has made 53 arrests and seized 20 illegal firearms, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an X post Wednesday morning, Oct. 1.

Many of those arrests appear to be on state charges with the defendants being held in state custody, according to online court records.

Bondi said on a “Fox News” appearance Tuesday that defendants arrested as part of the task force would be charged federally “whenever possible.” Federal charges are usually seen as harsher than state penalties. Also, there is no parole in the federal system, meaning that any sentences are served completely.

“We’re coming in with all of our federal agents, and we are going to charge them federally whenever possible. We’re going to keep them in federal custody,” Bondi said. “No offers and if you touch a federal officer, you will be prosecuted. You touch a federal officer and we’re going to hold you in jail, a federal jail, and we are going to prosecute you.”

In the early days of substantial federal law enforcement intervention in Memphis, Republicans ranging from President Donald Trump to a local state senator have focused their partisan ire on Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. 

The Trump White House’s earliest press statement about the deployment, published Sept. 12, accused Mulroy of being a “Soros-funded” district attorney. In a cable television appearance Tuesday morning, Sept. 30, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called Mulroy a “woke Soros DA.” In testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee also on Tuesday, state Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, invoked Soros’ name to describe Mulroy several times. 

The financier George Soros has long been a bogeyman for the political right. He is a prominent and frequent donor to Democratic causes and his donations — along with his Jewish heritage — have made him frequent fodder for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. 

Mulroy, in a statement to The Daily Memphian, called Taylor’s comments the “same old misleading stuff.” 

Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis said Tuesday, Sept. 30, she expects the first National Guard deployments as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force within the next two weeks. 

“We’re thinking in the next two weeks or so, we may start seeing the first deployment of National Guard. And we’re hoping that our National Guard — and we’ve had conversations with the major general (Warner Ross II) — that they will work with us on some of the non-public safety issues in our city,” Davis said. 

The police chief said the department does not yet know how many members of the National Guard will be deployed with the city. She said the Memphis Safe Task Force is still evolving, and MPD is still learning information every day. She described the situation as building a plane on the runway. 

“This is coming so fast that we haven’t had an opportunity to really outline everything. But I felt better today. We had long conversations, long briefings and had an opportunity to get more structure about the visit, not from the National Guard,” Davis said. 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could visit Memphis this week, Bondi said in a cable news interview Tuesday morning, Sept. 30.

Bondi, speaking to Fox News on Tuesday morning, said she and Hegseth would visit Memphis in the coming days but did not say when. The attorney general also said the Memphis Safe Task Force had established its joint operations center. 

She said the Memphis Safe Task Force had made nine arrests and taken two illegal guns off the street. 

It was not immediately clear who had been arrested; on what charges they had been arrested and where they were detained if still in custody. 

It’s been 10 days since President Donald Trump last turned a good part of his attention to Memphis with an Oval Office ceremony. Even then it wasn’t his full attention.

In signing the Sept. 15 executive order sending the National Guard and 13 federal agencies to the city to help fight crime, Trump talked a lot about what cities might be next.

He’s also relished what he has said — although others have disputed — was a triumph in the federal intervention in Washington D.C.

Meanwhile, the plan for Memphis has taken shape with an emphasis on the assistance from federal agencies along with an already more visible Tennessee Highway Patrol presence and accompanying federal and state funding.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee quickly praised President Donald Trump and his administration on Friday, Sept. 26, for the federal resources being deployed in Memphis. 

The state’s chief executive then used terms to describe the state’s second-largest city that are a marked contrast from how Trump has described Memphis ahead of the arrival of the Memphis Safe Task Force, an amalgamation of 13 federal agencies and the Tennessee National Guard under the command of the U.S. Marshals and in coordination with local and state law enforcement agencies.

In presenting more details of the task force Friday, Lee called Memphis a “great” city at least five times. He made lofty promises that the crime that has long plagued Memphis could soon be a thing of the past. 

“Once again, we want every Memphian to feel safe as they enjoy all that this great city has to offer, and we’re not going to let anything hold us back from allowing this city to be all that it can be,” Lee said. “The story of crime in Memphis is about to be a story of the past, and that’s what we need it to be.”

Crime reduction efforts under the Memphis Safe Task Force will begin next week and provide a “generational opportunity” to improve safety in the city, Gov. Bill Lee told reporters during a press conference in Memphis, Friday, Sept. 26. 

The effort includes the deployment of the National Guard and an infusion of state money.

“The story of crime in Memphis is about to be a story of the past, and that’s what we need it to be. … That’s what this effort is about,” Lee said, speaking from the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s local headquarters. The THP will play a major role in the task force, Lee said. 

The governor’s comments offer the first significant details of the rollout of the Memphis Safe Task Force since President Donald Trump announced the initiative during a Sept. 15 press conference in the Oval Office. 

Hundreds of federal law enforcement agents are expected to accompany the National Guard personnel deployed to Memphis “within the next two weeks,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young said late Thursday, Sept. 18.

Young said Memphis Safe Task Force specifics, including a finalized timeline of arrival, are still being worked out with the host of federal and state officials involved in the crime reduction initiative ordered by President Donald Trump. 

But the mayor has been given assurances that “they are deeply interested in making sure that what happens here is done in alignment with the existing programs and strategies that we have underway within the city,” he said. 

Young reiterated his disagreement with National Guard deployment as an effective crime-reduction strategy, but said that recent efforts at crime reduction aren’t enough. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee is weighing a legal challenge to the state’s use of the National Guard.

And Memphis City Council member Jerri Green has been talking with legal experts about the same possibility.

Claire Gardner of the ACLU chapter dismissed the federal effort behind the guard deployment sought by President Donald Trump as “failed tactics dressed up as intervention.”

“We will consider every legal option available,” she said of the possibility of a lawsuit of some kind. “We don’t bluff.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., questioned FBI Director Kash Patel about the upcoming deployment of the National Guard to Memphis during a Wednesday, Sept. 17, hearing.

Cohen asked Patel about the Memphis Safe Task Force, which President Donald Trump established Monday. The task force will include the FBI and 12 other federal agencies. It also requests Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee activate the Tennessee National Guard. 

Cohen, a longtime and ardent critic of Trump, praised Patel for “Operation Viper,” an FBI effort both Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty praised last week. Patel told Cohen the operation resulted in 500 arrests and about 110 indictments. 

Cohen also asked Patel what role the National Guard would play in the Memphis Safe Task Force. 

Shelby County Commissioners are weighing two resolutions that would serve as the body’s official response to a federal crime-fighting strategy announced this week.

President Donald Trump officially established the Memphis Safe Task Force on Monday, Sept. 15. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is implementing the plan, which seeks to coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement agencies focused on crime in Memphis.

Commissioners debated both approaches — one to flatly oppose the National Guard deployment and another more nuanced approach — during Wednesday, Sept. 17, committee sessions. Both resolutions are expected to be on the agenda for the Commission’s Monday, Sept. 22 meeting. Neither would be binding on state and federal leaders.

They followed an announcement hours earlier by a group of Memphis City Council members who have drafted a resolution opposing the presence of National Guard troops in Memphis.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the accurate list of council members supporting Jerri Green’s resolution. Due to an error in the original announcement, an earlier version included two members who have since been removed.

A group of Memphis City Council members has drafted a resolution opposing the presence of National Guard troops in Memphis as part of a crime-fighting strategy.

The resolution, which the full council could vote on next week, urges Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to reject the Guard’s deployment, which is part of the Memphis Safe Task Force President Donald Trump announced from the White House on Monday. 

Council member Jerri Green is sponsoring the resolution with support from fellow council members JB Smiley Jr., Pearl Walker and Dr. Jeff Warren. It is not binding on Lee.

There are many uncertainties around the proposed Memphis Safe Task Force and what exactly will happen when a cadre of federal, state and local agents hits Memphis to try and solve the city’s crime problem.

For one, no task force leader has been appointed yet, with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi expected to name that person at some point.

No exact timetable for when the task force will begin or end has been revealed, either, although Gov. Bill Lee told The Daily Memphian Tuesday, Sept. 16, that it would be “sooner than later” and that it could last longer than six months.

There will also likely be a new U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, a post typically considered the area’s top federal law enforcement officer, soon. 

It’s been a little more than a month since President Donald Trump mobilized National Guard troops and sent them into Washington, D.C., pledging a crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.

Now Trump has announced Memphis as the location of the next deployment. He signed a presidential memorandum Monday, Sept. 15, that established the Memphis Safe Task Force, a federally led crime-reduction effort that promises coordination among 13 federal agencies and potential assistance from a host of state and local law enforcement, including the National Guard.

In announcing the task force, Trump said crime-reduction efforts in the Bluff City would be a “replica” of the “extraordinarily successful” efforts in D.C.

So what has military involvement in D.C. looked like? And what does it say about how this could go in Memphis?

Most Memphians agree that the city needs to address crime rates. But residents interviewed by The Daily Memphian on Tuesday, Sept. 16, disagreed about whether a National Guard deployment would offer a solution.

Some raised concerns that bringing troops to the city under President Donald Trump’s new “Memphis Safe Task Force” could irritate political tensions and cause chaos. Others think the move is worth a try if it brings crime down.

“You can’t complain about crime and complain about the National Guard,” said Emory Hammonds, who runs a barber shop in the Southland Mall in Whitehaven.

“But I do have a serious concern about those who are not criminals, young, Black, who don’t know how to conduct themselves when encountered by law enforcement,” Hammonds said. “… A lot of times, they might not comply as they should, and get hurt or killed.” 

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee does not have a date for when the Tennessee National Guard would arrive in Memphis but said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that it would be “sooner than later.” 

“Part of our plan is just to make sure people know when we know ... We obviously want the community to understand when this is going to happen, what it’s going to look like, how many soldiers there are going to be, how many police officers there are going to be, how many troopers there will be,” Lee said. “The more we tell Memphians, the better off it’s going to be.” 

Lee spoke to The Daily Memphian on Tuesday afternoon. On Monday, he appeared alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office as the president created the Memphis Safe Task Force. Trump has focused on crime reduction in cities run by the opposite political party, and he has interspersed his remarks about Memphis with threats that the National Guard might go to other cities. 

A presidential memorandum established the task force, a federally led crime reduction effort that promises coordination among 13 federal agencies and potential assistance from a range of state and local law enforcement agencies.

President Donald Trump said Monday, Sept. 15, that he has established the Memphis Safe Task Force.

The president signed a memorandum to that effect from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, flanked by a number of government leaders and Tennessee elected officials.

“This task force will be a replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts here (in Washington D.C.), and you’ll see it’s a lot of the same thing (in Memphis), although the numbers here are really something, they’re really bad. Now, we did send the FBI in about four months ago to work, and it brought some of the numbers down, and they did a great job, but we’re sending in the big force,” Trump said Monday.

He said the task force will include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the National Guard. 

The impending arrival of National Guard troops to Memphis, along with additional federal and state resources, is sparking a wave of local leaders speaking on — and to — national news outlets.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said on CNN Monday, Sept. 15, that the presence of the National Guard in the city will be a “threat to democracy.”

Memphis City Council Chairman Ford Canale, also on CNN Monday, disagreed with Harris’ view.

“I think that the National Guard is a short-term solution, and let’s be honest, these guys, these men and women, have jobs and families just like we do, and they would probably rather not be here as well,” Canale told CNN host Wolf Blitzer. “What we’re focused on as the legislators for the city of Memphis is long-term solutions. So what we would welcome is more federal agents, federal prosecutors, those that can help us get the violent criminals and drugs off our streets.”

One of the last times the National Guard was called into Memphis, the city was a different place. 

It was the summer of 1978. Simultaneous police and fire union strikes and a city-wide blackout prompted late Memphis Mayor Wyeth Chandler to declare a civil emergency and call in the guard.

The power of the state military force was helpful and needed then, according to Buddy Chapman, who was director of the Memphis Police Department at the time. But with recent news that the guard is making a return to the Bluff City, Chapman said he feels differently this time around. 

In an interview, Chapman called the move a “political stunt” and a “severe dis-allocation of resources.”

Last week, the CEO of a rail company met with President Donald Trump to discuss a giant train merger. During that conversation, Trump sought his opinion on National Guard deployment, the president said Friday, Sept. 12.

“And so I said, ‘What do you think? Where should we go next, as a city?’” Trump said during a Friday morning interview on “Fox & Friends.” “He said, ‘Sir, Memphis would be good.’” 

Trump did not name Jim Vena, the CEO of Union Pacific, but described the person he spoke to as the head of the company. Union Pacific confirmed Vena, a FedEx board member from 2022 to 2023, met with the president. 

Speculation had mounted that Trump would target Memphis for National Guard deployment, something his administration Friday called an “aggressive push to dismantle the rampant violent crime fueled by failed Democrat governance in major cities.” With his comments Friday, the president tied that official announcement to advice from an executive pushing for a major business deal, who was said to have traveled around Memphis in an armored vehicle because of “terrible” crime.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and President Donald Trump had a productive conversation about the plan to bring the National Guard to Memphis, and the two plan to talk again early next week about the plan, a spokeswoman told The Daily Memphian. 

“The governor and the president discussed the remarkable community in Memphis that includes top global businesses and strong faith leaders as well as the cultural significance that the city represents. They agreed this is a historic opportunity to make an already great city a safer city,” Elizabeth Lane Johnson, Lee’s press secretary, said Friday, Sept. 12. 

Lee’s call with Trump followed the president's Friday morning announcement on Fox News that he would send the guard to Memphis. The governor responded later in the day, saying the guard would be sent to Memphis as part of a comprehensive mission to lower crime in the city further. 

The National Guard is a group of state-run part-time military organizations. In the 50 states, the state National Guard reports to the governor but can be activated by the president. In Washington, D.C., where Trump deployed the National Guard, it can be federalized and under federal control. 

The city’s strategy on a National Guard deployment to Memphis — at least up until President Donald Trump announced Friday, Sept. 12, that the guard will be coming — was to hope it didn’t happen.

But if it did, federal and State of Tennessee officials could be convinced to let the city have a say in where the troops are sent and what they do in the city.

That’s what Shelby County Democratic Party Chairman Willie Simon took from his discussions with Mayor Paul Young and others who were meeting in the days ahead of Trump’s confirmation Friday morning to a national audience on Fox News.

Less than 24 hours later, Young, backed by several dozen backers and allies of the strategy at City Hall, began a political journey.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young pointed to three things Friday, Sept. 12, he believes have reduced city crime in light of the announcement that President Donald Trump would send the National Guard to the city.

During a press conference Friday, Young highlighted the city’s strategy of “identifying the most violent individuals and groups in the city;” investments in a “citywide camera network,” and a recent FBI and Memphis Police Department partnership, which he said have led to reduced crime numbers. 

MPD preempted the National Guard announcement with a Tuesday release of year-to-date crime numbers that showed a 25-year low in some categories.

Among the strategies Young referenced was the city’s camera-focused initiatives in the last year.

Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis will remain the city’s chief law enforcement officer when the National Guard arrives, Davis and Memphis Mayor Paul Young said Friday, Sept. 12. 

Young said Davis’ status as the city’s top cop would not change when the guard arrives. The city still does not know when the deployment will begin, how many personnel will come or where they will be stationed. 

“There will be a lot of coordination, and obviously, we’re still, this is something we’re all new to. So we’re going to be learning, working with our attorneys, but Chief Davis will remain the chief of police and continue to drive law enforcement in the city of Memphis,” Young said during a news conference. 

Davis spoke to reporters after Young. She said the city hoped to reach a memorandum of understanding with the National Guard. Such a document would presumably govern how the guard would behave in Memphis. 

Memphis Mayor Paul Young did not ask for the National Guard to be brought to Memphis and does not believe it is the way to bring down crime in the city, he said during a press conference Friday, Sept. 12.

“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime. However, that decision has been made,” Young said. “And as mayor of the city that I love, Memphis, Tennessee, my commitment is to make sure that we work strategically to ensure that this happens in a way that truly benefits and strengthens our community.”

Young said the City of Memphis is in talks with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the federal government about the National Guard’s deployment to Memphis. President Donald Trump said during a Friday morning interview on “Fox & Friends” he would be sending the National Guard to Memphis.

For now, Young said, he does not know when the National Guard will arrive. Other details are still being determined, he said, such as how many guardsmen will be deployed, how long they will stay in Memphis, where they will be stationed and what their specific assignments may be.

The National Guard is coming to Memphis, President Donald Trump said Friday, Sept. 12, on the cable news show “Fox & Friends.” 

“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled. He’s a Democrat mayor. The mayor is happy and ... the governor is happy. Deeply troubled. We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington,” Trump said. “I would’ve preferred going to Chicago.” 

Gov. Bill Lee, in a statement on Friday, said the next phase of combatting crime in Memphis will involve a “comprehensive mission with the Tennessee National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Memphis Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies, and we are working closely with the Trump Administration to determine the most effective role for each of these agencies to best serve Memphians.”

Lee stopped short of saying he had activated the Tennessee National Guard. 

State and local leadership reacted largely along partisan lines to President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would send the National Guard to Memphis. 

Republicans praised the move. Democrats called it unnecessary. Here’s a roundup of some of those reactions.

Tennessee Senate Minority Leader Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis:

“As a lifelong Memphian, I want to be clear: We do not need the National Guard occupying our city. The last time a U.S. president sent the Guard to Memphis was in 1968, after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel and our community was in deep grief and unrest. Other times the Guard was deployed to Southern cities, it was to enforce civil rights laws when segregationists refused to comply. That history matters — because what we are seeing now is not about justice, it’s about politics.

“This is an abuse of power, using troops to score political points off of crime statistics, even though overall crime in Memphis is down to a 25-year low. That’s not leadership — that’s overreach.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s real-time reaction to the National Guard coming to Memphis was one of support for Mayor Paul Young.

Less than an hour after President Donald Trump announced in a Friday, Sept. 12, television appearance that he would send the troops to Memphis, Tennessee’s only Democratic U.S. Representative — and the highest ranking Democrat in the state — spoke about the news publicly after a planned press conference at Memphis International Airport.

Cohen said Mayor Young, a Democrat who holds a nonpartisan office, has little choice in the matter and that the city isn’t in a position to resist via court challenge as Chicago officials have done.

“The mayor’s got a tough job. He’s got to look out for the overall good of the city. We do have a crime problem,” Cohen said Friday. “He’s got to work with (Tennessee) Governor (Bill) Lee and the state – and the federal government too. I’m not going to criticize Mayor Young and (Memphis Police Department) Chief (C.J.) Davis. I think they are doing a good job, and they are going to do a better job.”

Memphis Mayor Paul Young said Thursday, Sept. 11, that the National Guard could be deployed to Memphis, confirming media reports about the matter.

In a statement sent to media outlets, Young said, “Earlier this week, I was informed that the Governor and the President were considering deploying the National Guard and other resources to Memphis. I am committed to working to ensure any efforts strengthen our community and build on our progress.” 

Like Lee did in a statement on Wednesday, Young highlighted the ongoing federal law enforcement resources in the city and said the city needed more of those resources. 

“We agree with Governor Lee that effective support for Memphis comes through focused initiatives that deliver results like we have seen with the FBI, state troopers, and other law enforcement partnerships. What we need most are financial resources for intervention and prevention, additional patrol officers, and case support to strengthen MPD’s investigations,” Young said. 

The White House, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office and Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s administration have discussed a possible deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

The person, whom The Daily Memphian agreed not to name due to the sensitive and evolving nature of the situation, said the discussions remain preliminary and subject to what President Donald Trump decides to do. The president had previously said in a radio interview that he would consider sending troops to Memphis. 

The source said legal restrictions could prevent some police actions by the National Guard in Memphis. They said any deployment locally would be far different than the recent arrival of troops in Washington, D.C., because of those legal hurdles.

The person said National Guard troops could not set up roadblocks or arrest people for crimes because they are not local law enforcement officers. They would be allowed to guard federal assets — for example, the Odell Horton Federal Building in Downtown Memphis — or respond to a natural disaster.