Overall crime in Memphis fell nearly 36% during the year after President Donald Trump created a multiagency public-safety task force, according to figures released by the White House.
The administration said murders declined 36%, robberies fell 42%, motor vehicle thefts dropped 57%, shoplifting decreased 44% and aggravated assaults declined 26% compared with the previous year.
The release did not identify the data source, define the comparison period or provide underlying incident counts. It also did not distinguish changes recorded before the task force began from those that followed its work, so the figures alone do not establish what caused the declines.
The Memphis Safe Task Force coordinates more than 30 federal, state and local agencies. Its work includes arrests, warrant service and illegal-firearm seizures, according to the White House.
Administration reports arrests and gun seizures
The administration said the task force made 12,747 arrests during its first year, including 131 homicide arrests, 1,363 narcotics arrests, 1,276 firearms arrests and 125 arrests for sex offenses. It also reported 1,408 arrests of people described as known gang members.
The White House said agencies seized 2,160 illegal firearms. The release did not say how many arrests led to charges or convictions, whether a single person could appear in more than one category or how many firearms cases involved federal rather than state or local law.
Across Shelby County, violent crime fell more than 30% and major property crime declined more than 40%, according to the administration. Memphis is on pace for a 25-year low in overall crime, the White House said, though it did not provide the forecast method or year-to-date totals.
Release points to declines before the task force
The White House said Memphis had already recorded a large drop in 2025 compared with 2024, when overall crime fell 28%, murders declined 26% and robberies dropped 31%. Fewer than 200 murders were recorded in 2025 for the first time since 2019, according to the release.
The administration contrasted those changes with 2024, when it said Memphis had the nation's highest violent-crime and property-crime rates. The release also claimed the city's overall crime rate was 344% above the national average that year but did not identify the dataset behind that comparison.
Trump credited the federal surge and agency coordination for the reported improvement. The source included no response from Memphis officials, law-enforcement agencies, community groups or independent researchers about the figures or the task force's effect.
Crime data can be revised as reports are reclassified or investigations continue. A full assessment would require comparable local and federal records, the task force's start date and information about longer-term trends beyond the administration's summary.
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