Memphis police report major crime down nearly 40% year over year

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) — Memphis police are reporting a major drop in crime compared with this time last year, even as city leaders and federal partners say more work remains.

President Donald Trump predicted March 22, 2026, that Memphis would become “virtually crime-free” within two months, pointing to the Memphis Safe Task Force he created. Those two months have passed, and while crime has not disappeared, the Memphis Police Department said year-to-date Part I crime (most violent crime) is down nearly 40% year over year.

MPD also said the city’s homicide clearance rate now stands at 81%, up from 40% in 2023.

Neighborhoods seeing some of the biggest drops

Pastor Leon Jones Jr., from The Dwelling Place is in Raleigh, said he has seen both the city’s pain and its progress.

Jones hosts regular food drives and “Lite At Night” Friday basketball games, which he described as a safe space that connects young people to positive outlets and jobs. Jones described one young man who wanted a job and later earned a forklift license.

“He said, ‘Man, I’m sick of this. I just want a job. I just want a chance.’ And he got his forklift license — and he said, ‘I’m sick of the streets, man. I just want to be a good citizen.’”

Reductions are showing up across multiple major crime categories, including murders, rapes, aggravated assaults, robberies, vehicle thefts and burglaries.

In the 38128 ZIP code (Raleigh), violent crime is down nearly 40%, with 1 murder so far in 2026 compared with 11 last year. In nearby Frayser, crime is down more than 30%, with 8 murders this year versus 24 the year before.

Mayor cites targeted approach, staffing and state funding

Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the city is focused on getting the “drivers of crime” off the streets, adding that the city’s strategy includes being strategic about who police are going after.

“We’re doing all of the things that we can to get the drivers of crime off the streets — because what we know is about 20% of the individuals create 80% of the crime," said Mayor Young. “I think the overarching approach of being strategic about who we’re actually going after.”

Young also pointed to a $39 million state grant in 2024 — the Violent Crime Intervention Fund — targeting nine of Tennessee’s 10 most violent ZIP codes in Memphis: Frayser, Orange Mound, South Memphis, Whitehaven, Westwood, Raleigh, Hickory Hill, East Memphis, and the Airport/Parkway Village area.

Young credited MPD’s largest recruit class in a decade and said the city must acknowledge it has had “too much crime,” adding, “One life lost is still too much.” He went on to say, “It’s no sense of getting upset about people talking about the level of crime here. We have to be honest that we have had too much crime in our city.”

MPD said it currently has 1,929 commissioned officers, with 121 recruits in training.

Airways precinct is the exception, MPD says

Homicides are down across almost every Memphis precinct, with one exception: the Airways precinct, where homicides are up 87%.

Police reported 15 murders so far this year, compared with eight last year. Police said most of those killings involved people who knew each other, including domestic conflicts.

In a separate email, MPD said the increase in homicides within the Airways Station has largely involved incidents between people known to one another, including domestic conflicts. MPD said its response includes identifying and apprehending violent offenders, increasing visibility in the areas seeing the highest levels of violence, and working to address conflicts before they escalate.

MPD said the station is strengthening partnerships with community stakeholders in Orange Mound and Riverside, while using blight-reduction initiatives, environmental crime prevention strategies and focused crime-reduction operations.

What officials say about the Memphis Safe Task Force

Young said the Memphis Safe Task Force “amplified our efforts,” saying crime reductions had been about 27% before dropping to around 40% to 42%.

The Memphis Safe Task Force arrived Sept. 29, 2025, and is a joint operation of roughly 350 federal agents across 13 agencies working alongside MPD. The effort includes more than 2,700 total personnel, including 1,450 National Guard members.

U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller said the task force averages about 40 arrests and recovers about 10 firearms each day. He said crime was trending downward, but the task force “certainly escalated the decrease in crime.”

According to the task force, agents have made more than 10,000 arrests, including more than 1,000 known gang members, and cut Shelby County’s outstanding warrant backlog in half from 10,000 warrants to around 5,000. The Impact Team could not verify those numbers, but it did file a public records request seeking to confirm data and to get a glimpse of the master event log.

When asked how the task force tracks the figures, Marshal Miller said it uses a “master event log,” but said it is not public record while the operation is ongoing because it is considered intelligence. Miller said the task force also relies on MPD data.

When asked how long the task force will remain in Memphis, Miller said the president would decide when it leaves and that the task force would be here until the mission is complete.

MPD outlines “Sustain the Gains” approach

In its email, MPD said “Sustain the Gains” is “more than a slogan” in 2026 and described its strategy as the “Four P’s: People, Places, Prosecution, and Prevention.”

MPD said Austin Peay Station’s reduction in homicides is the result of strategic policing efforts and community engagement, including relationship-building with residents, faith leaders and community stakeholders in Frayser and Raleigh.

MPD said partnerships have been “a game changer” in Crump Station, citing collaboration with federal partners and support from the Tennessee National Guard, along with coordination with neighborhood watch groups to share information about crime trends and concerns.

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