‘This situation has become dire in one of our Nation’s most historic cities,’ Trump said.
Memphis is a city with a proud heritage—birthplace of the blues and rock and roll, headquarters of FedEx and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—but it also claims the dubious title of one of the most dangerous U.S. cities.
As President Donald Trump moves to send the National Guard and federal agents into Memphis to help quell the violence, state and city officials in Tennessee are sharply divided over the role the federal government should play in municipal law enforcement.
The city ranked first among all major U.S. cities in 2024 in both per capita violent crime and property crime, according to an August analysis of FBI data on the 30 most populous U.S. cities compiled by security.org, a home security marketing and research group.
Last year, Memphis had a violent crime rate that was about six times greater than the national average at 2,500 violent crimes per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate about three times greater than the national average, the organization reported.
In addition to sending in the National Guard, Trump’s Sept. 15 memorandum titled Restoring Law and Order in Memphis, will create a multiagency task force that includes the Pentagon, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the attorney general; the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
The role of the task force will be to enact “hypervigilant policing, aggressive prosecution, complex investigations, financial enforcement, and large-scale saturation of besieged neighborhoods with law enforcement personnel,” the memorandum states, pledging that federal agents will collaborate with state and local officials in Tennessee.
“The city of Memphis, Tennessee, is suffering from tremendous levels of violent crime that have overwhelmed its local government’s ability to respond effectively,” it reads. “This situation has become dire in one of our Nation’s most historic cities.”
Many state officials welcomed the move.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee wrote on X, “Our goal is to accelerate the positive momentum of Operation Viper—an ongoing FBI mission in Memphis with a dedicated task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement that has already arrested hundreds of the most violent offenders.”
For months, I have been in constant communication with the Trump Administration to develop a multi-phased, strategic plan to combat crime in Memphis, leveraging the full extent of both federal and state resources.
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) September 12, 2025
The next phase will include a comprehensive mission with the…
