Reality check? Dropping crime numbers meet the first spring weekend on Beale Street
A member of the National Guard stands watch on Beale Street Oct. 24, 2025, in Memphis. (George Walker IV/AP file)
If the Memphis Safe Task Force has been completely responsible for the city’s drop in crime so far — or even just mostly responsible for it — the first weekend of spring on Beale Street may be the test of its work for the last six months.
Two people were shot and wounded in less than an hour late Friday, March 20, into Saturday morning near the entertainment district.
Three people were arrested in the same general time frame for fighting with police.
All of that and more was captured in fragmented recordings circulating on social media, the currency in the ongoing combustible relationship between crime by the numbers and crime by perception.
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Memphis Safe Task Force Beale Street Entertainment District Paul Young 2026 elections Marie Feagins Anthony Buckner Willie Simon G.A. Hardaway Marsha Blackburn Bill Hagerty Subscriber OnlyThank you for reading The Daily Memphian. Your support is critical.
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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