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.
“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.
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.
West Memphis, Arkansas, a suburb west of Memphis, ranked as a small-sized city by SafeHome, saw the second-highest murder rate in the United States at 72 per 100,000 residents. That was only surpassed by East Point, Georgia, a suburb located southwest of Atlanta, which saw 78.5 homicides per 100,000 people, according to the analysis.
Birmingham, Alabama, ranked as a small-sized city, saw a homicide rate in the United States at 58.8 per 100,000 residents, according to SafeHome. Among medium-sized cities, St. Louis, Missouri, experienced 54 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2024, the analysis found.
Memphis was ranked No. 1 in terms of aggravated assaults among the largest U.S. cities, the website said. The city also ranked in the top three for motor vehicle thefts, larceny-theft incidents, and burglary, the figures show.
The city’s murder rate is at a six-year low, and aggravated assault is at a five-year low, it said.
