Last month, the federal government announced it would send National Guard troops and federal agents to the Tennessee city.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Oct. 29 that federal efforts in Memphis, Tennessee, over the past month have led to about 80 missing children being found and the arrests of 1,700 people, including 126 gang members.
Last month, the federal government said it would send National Guard troops and federal agents to Memphis, which has long been ranked among U.S. cities as having the highest rates of violent crime and homicides.
Bondi confirmed the operation’s figures in a post on X, saying “tolerating crime is a choice.”
Tolerating crime is a choice.
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) October 29, 2025
With 1700 arrests — including 126 gang members — in just one month, our Memphis surge is proving that it’s possible to make American cities safe again.https://t.co/AS0l4y9xbS
“With 1700 arrests—including 126 gang members—in just one month, our Memphis surge is proving that it’s possible to make American cities safe again,” Bondi said.
The attorney general shared a Fox News article in the X post that contained a statement about the results.
In that statement, Bondi said that 293 firearms were seized in the operation. About seven dozen at-risk missing children were also located, she said, without providing an exact figure.
The Trump administration’s law enforcement “surge into Memphis has put gang members behind bars, rescued dozens of children, and proven that collaboration between federal and local law enforcement can quickly make American cities safe again,” she added.
The troop deployment came after President Donald Trump signed an order in mid-September to send the Guard into Memphis.
While signing it, Trump told reporters at the Oval Office that the deployed troops would join a special task force in the city comprising officials from various federal agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
He said the goal would be to stamp out crime in a way that has been done in Washington after sending the National Guard there and federalizing its local police force. Other cities have also seen National Guard deployments this year, including Los Angeles and Chicago.
“This task force will be a replica of our extraordinarily successful efforts here,” Trump said of the District of Columbia in the remarks last month. “And you’ll see it’s a lot of the same thing, although the numbers here are really something, they’re really bad.”
Trump also said the FBI had already stepped up its activities in Memphis, which is Tennessee’s second-largest city, and had helped reduce crime.
“We’re sending in the big force now,” he said.
