U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Memphis on Friday to highlight the Memphis Safe Task Force’s results, crediting the multi-agency operation with reducing overall crime by 34 percent from the previous year.
Blanche said the task force, which launched in September 2025, has helped drive a 33 percent decline in murders, a 25 percent drop in sexual assaults, a 54 percent decrease in motor vehicle thefts, and a 40 percent decline in robberies.
“We started this Memphis task force last September, so just over a year ago,” Blanche said, noting that the task force has made more arrests for murder than the number of murders that have occurred and arrests someone wanted on a murder charge every two and a half days.
“Overall crime is at a 25-year low,” he said.
Blanche credited law enforcement officers for the results, thanking them for risking their lives and spending time away from their families to protect Shelby County residents.
“The historic drop in crime that we’ve seen in this city is something that we’ve seen all across the country,” Blanche added.
Republican gubernatorial nominee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was among the Tennessee officials who joined Blanche in Memphis, where she described him as a “true partner” in the task force.
Blackburn said the task force’s success stems from cooperation among approximately two dozen local, state, and federal agencies, including the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tennessee National Guard, and Memphis Police Department.
“We have a shared purpose. We have a shared goal,” Blackburn said, adding that the agencies working together made the operation possible.
Blackburn also emphasized the need to sustain the task force’s progress, saying officials were discussing “how we sustain this, how we move forward” as they marked its one-year anniversary.
She described Memphis as a potential model for other cities seeking to address violent crime through coordinated law enforcement efforts.
“We truly feel that Memphis is the model for how you can move forward because everyone said, ‘We have a problem. Here is an opportunity to really surge these resources. Let’s work together and get in behind this and get it done,’” Blackburn said.
Blackburn ended her remarks by thanking President Donald Trump for maintaining his commitment to the operation and ensuring law enforcement agencies have the resources needed to continue their work.
“We thank the president for keeping that commitment and making certain we have the resources that we need to get this project across the finish line,” she said.
State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), the Republican nominee for Tennessee’s newly redrawn 9th Congressional District, also participated in Friday’s event.
Taylor, who led the “Make Memphis Matter” campaign in the Tennessee General Assembly, said the task force has made a substantial difference in the city and credited President Trump with remaining personally engaged in the initiative.
He also argued that Memphis could become a model for how the federal government helps cities address violent crime.
“I believe that we are that model,” Taylor said, adding that other cities grappling with crime should look to Memphis as an example.
He said the collaboration between federal, state, and local agencies has been essential to the task force’s efforts.
“I know that you and the president are committed to Memphis, and that makes me proud,” Taylor told Blanche.
As of Thursday, the Memphis Safe Task Force had made 13,598 arrests since its launch, including 144 for homicide, 1,464 for controlled substances, 1,336 for firearms violations, and 126 for sex offenses, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. The operation had also seized 2,290 illegal firearms and located 196 missing children.
Watch Blanche’s Memphis roundtable:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
