Deputy Attorney General Blanche Hosts Memphis Roundtable as Safe Task Force Marks First Year With Nearly 14,000 Arrests
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche hosted a roundtable in Memphis, Tennessee, at midday on Oct. 16, joining federal, state and local law enforcement officials to review the first year of the Memphis Safe Task Force. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta took part, along with representatives of the FBI, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office and the Memphis Police Department.
The Memphis Safe Task Force began operations on Sept. 29, 2025. It was established by a presidential memorandum signed by President Donald Trump on Sept. 15, 2025, and coordinates federal, state and local law enforcement, including mobilized members of the Tennessee National Guard. Its stated focus is violent street crime: arresting violent offenders, clearing warrants, seizing illegal firearms and locating missing children.
According to first-year figures released by the U.S. Marshals Service on Sept. 29, the task force has made 13,140 arrests, including 135 for homicide, 1,406 for controlled-substance offenses, 1,303 for firearms violations and 125 for sex offenses. Of those arrested, 1,461 were known gang members. Officers seized 2,201 illegal firearms and located 189 missing children. Compared with the same period a year earlier, murders in Memphis were down 37 percent, robberies down 47 percent, sexual assaults down 30 percent and aggravated assaults down 29 percent, with serious crime down nearly 38 percent overall.
At the Oct. 16 roundtable, task force data put total arrests at nearly 14,000, and Tennessee Highway Patrol officials described a sharp rise in traffic stops in Shelby County over the past year. Blanche told participants the task force will remain in Memphis, saying the federal government will continue to commit personnel and funding while gradually shifting from rotating two-to-three-week surge deployments toward a more normalized presence. In a statement marking the first anniversary, Blanche said the coordinated effort had brought Memphis back to life and put the city on its way to becoming the safest city in America.
In the same anniversary statement, Serralta said the earlier D.C. Safe Task Force had shown immediate success and that the Memphis operation demonstrated the impact of law enforcement partners working together under a whole-of-government approach. Maj. Gen. Warner Ross, Tennessee's adjutant general, said National Guard members serving on the task force had worked closely with partner agencies and had a positive impact on Tennessee communities.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部罗伯特·F·肯尼迪大楼。图片来源：APK／Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 4.0。Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. Credit: APK via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
