TN governor says more federal agents, National Guard will be in Memphis next week

For two weeks, Memphis has been bracing for an influx of National Guard troops after President Donald Trump announced his intention to deploy them to the city. On Friday, residents learned more about that plan, and it looks to be very different from the deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Friday that the troops will be part of a surge of resources to fight crime in the city that includes 13 federal agencies and state troopers. The National Guard troops will be from Tennessee, and they will be deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service to support agents also arriving from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration along with local law enforcement.

The Republican governor said the troops will not make arrests and will not be armed unless local law enforcement officials request it. 

A post on the city’s website says, “Guardsmen and women will be easily identifiable in their standard uniforms that they wear every day. The guardsmen and women will not be wearing masks.” 

“The story of crime in Memphis is about to be a story of the past,” Lee said at a news conference in Memphis where he stood with city, state and federal officials including the Memphis mayor and police chief.

The “Memphis Safe Task Force” will begin operations next week, Lee said. He could not give an exact timeline for when each agency would start to deploy resources to the city, saying it will occur in phases. 

He said he will not declare a state of emergency.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young has taken a pragmatic approach. Young, who is a Democrat, has said he never asked for National Guard troops but recognized they will come regardless of his opinion.

While discussing the deployment, both Republican and Democratic officials have noted recent decreases in some Memphis crime metrics. Young noted that crime rates in Memphis have been falling but “we have a lot of work to do to get crime at a level where people really, really feel it.”

Both Young and Lee emphasized that the surge of resources is not intended to be a quick fix but rather a sustained effort.

“It will operate as long as it takes,” Lee said.

“Success looks like Memphis being a safe city, Memphis being a place where people have no concerns about going out with their family, about locating their business. When people recognize the city of Memphis as one of the safest places in America, that’ll be success.”

Lee said the state will provide $100 million to Memphis for public safety initiatives as well as 300 state troopers. That will allow 100 troopers to be on the ground at any one time. 

For its part, the Memphis Police Department has more than 2,000 full-time police officers. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office has more than 600 law enforcement deputies.

Lee and other officials have said federal authorities were already focusing on Memphis. That includes an operation the FBI says has resulted in approximately 500 arrests and about 101 federal indictments of violent criminals since May.


(Photo Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP)