Tennessee senators have petitioned President Donald Trump to send federal resources to Memphis, Tennessee, since he won the November election, The Daily Signal has learned.
On Monday, the president officially answered the call by signing a memorandum establishing a “Memphis Safe Task Force” with the goal of ending street and violent crime in the southwestern Tennessee city. Memphis will become the second city to receive a federal crime crackdown after the Trump administration authorized the National Guard to Washington, D.C., last month.
But the deliberation over how to tackle crime in Memphis predates the president’s cleanup of the nation’s capital, going back to November, when Tennessee’s two Republican senators started pitching Cabinet nominees on sending federal resources to the crime-ridden city.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told The Daily Signal she gave now-FBI Director Kash Patel a sheet of 2024 statistics about crime in Memphis when he came to her office for his initial interview before his Senate confirmation hearing.
“I asked him if he would work with me to address this crime issue,” Blackburn said. “When he came before us at the Judiciary Committee, I asked again for his public commitment. He gave it, and he has been true to his word.”
Memphis had the highest rate of violent crime per capita in 2024, including some of the highest per capita rates of homicide, robbery, and aggravated assault, and property crimes such as burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft, FBI data showed.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., started the conversation with Patel and Attorney General-to-be Pam Bondi about sending federal resources to Memphis in November.
“We started the conversation at that point, before they were even in office,” Hagerty told The Daily Signal, “and I’ve had terrific cooperation from both the FBI and the [Department of Justice] in putting together a preliminary effort.”
Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to Memphis is part of a strategic plan to address crime in the city, Blackburn told The Daily Signal.
“This is something that is part of a longer-term strategy in addressing crime in Memphis and our work to make Memphis safe again,” she said.
Phase One of the strategy was Operation Viper, a preliminary FBI mission in Memphis with a dedicated task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement, which has yielded more than 500 arrests and 100 indictments.
