Trump Signs Memorandum Creating Memphis Safe Task Force and Seeks Tennessee National Guard Support
On September 15, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a presidential memorandum in Washington, "Restoring Law and Order in Memphis," establishing the Memphis Safe Task Force and directing the Secretary of War to ask Tennessee's governor to make the Tennessee National Guard available in support. Memphis, in Shelby County, Tennessee, is the state's large city on the Mississippi River.
Citing FBI data, the memorandum says Memphis in 2024 had the highest rate of violent crime per capita in the country, including some of the highest per capita rates of murder, robbery and aggravated assault, along with property crimes such as burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. It says state and local leaders had requested federal assistance.
The new task force's objective is to end street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent through hypervigilant policing, aggressive prosecution, complex investigations, financial enforcement and large-scale saturation of besieged neighborhoods with law enforcement personnel. Its chair is selected by the Attorney General, and its members come from 13 federal departments and agencies, including the Treasury, War, Justice and Homeland Security departments, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee.
The task force may request operational assistance from the Memphis Police Department, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, using the federal, state and local coordination strategies developed for the earlier District of Columbia crime operation.
On the National Guard, the memorandum directs the Secretary of War to request, under section 502 of title 32, United States Code, that the Governor of Tennessee make Tennessee National Guard units available to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis, in such numbers and for such duration as the governor deems necessary.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：田纳西州孟菲斯市中心与密西西比河（资料图）。照片：Mattbeat1981 摄，Wikimedia Commons（CC0）。 / Photo: Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, and the Mississippi River (file photo). Photo by Mattbeat1981, Wikimedia Commons (CC0).
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