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Two weeks after a federal task force began patrolling the western Tennessee city, National Guard troops from the state have now arrived.
Oct. 10, 2025Updated 7:23 p.m. ET
Some of the first National Guard troops to arrive in Memphis were spotted downtown on Friday, patrolling in small clusters near the Mississippi River. When an apparent fire alarm prompted temporary evacuations from the iconic Pyramid building, some Guardsmen were already there, chatting with local police officers before moving along.
So went the placid first morning of the deployment in Memphis, nearly a month after President Trump announced that the Guard would head there to combat violent crime and Gov. Bill Lee, a fellow Republican, endorsed the plan.
The trickle of troops into Memphis came after weeks of escalating tensions between the Trump administration and Democratic leaders in Illinois and Oregon over Mr. Trump’s efforts to send the National Guard into Chicago and Portland. Courts have temporarily blocked those deployments, while protests against the administration’s immigration crackdown continue in both cities.
The National Guard troops in Memphis, which are expected to come only from Tennessee, will “provide additional eyes and ears, supporting the Memphis Police Department who will continue to manage public safety,” according to a city website.
Hundreds of federal agents and staff have already been roaming the city over the last two weeks as part of a crime-fighting task force, in coordination with state and local law enforcement.
Unlike the National Guard, which cannot make arrests and will carry weapons only if asked by the local police, those agents have a broader legal mandate.
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It is not the first time federal agents have been in Memphis: An F.B.I. task force concluded work earlier this year, and Governor Lee had already sent state highway patrol officers to the city. But now, weeks after Mr. Trump announced he would focus on Memphis, the law enforcement presence has ballooned.
“We’ve asked for federal support in the past,” Chief Cerelyn Davis of the Memphis police said during a discussion with the Memphis chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. this week. “We didn’t ask for it in such large numbers. But it’s here.”
City and police officials have said that violent crime rates have gone down in Memphis, after an alarming spike across the city and in its surrounding suburbs. But some of its crime statistics remain among the highest in the nation.
But with Mr. Lee and state Republicans in support of the force, Mayor Paul Young, a Democrat, said he would work with the crime task force. He has repeatedly said that he does not agree with sending National Guard troops into the city, but some community leaders have pushed Mr. Young to take a stronger stance in opposition.
“My posture quickly shifted from fighting against it coming to how do we ensure that when it comes, it works for our community?” Mr. Young said, speaking during the N.A.A.C.P. discussion.
As of Friday morning, the F.B.I. office in Nashville said there had been more than 250 arrests, 70 guns recovered and 41 drug seizures since the task force began. Many of those arrests appear to have happened after traffic stops, according to a review of some Shelby County court records.
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At least two arrests have shown up in federal court, both related to forcefully resisting arrest. In one instance, a man was charged after he refused to answer questions about his immigration status, backed away from officers and, according to the complaint, struck a deputy U.S. marshal while being handcuffed.
Another man, stopped after driving without headlights on, elbowed a state highway patrol officer in the chest and tried to run, according to the complaint. He was caught after jumping over a fence.
Some Memphis residents have expressed some openness to federal support as a way to help minimize the most persistent violent crime in the city.
Some residents have reported on social media sightings of unmarked cars or groups of federal agents. There appears to have been an uptick in cars being stopped, and state highway patrol officers driving and parked along the city’s major roads.
But others have expressed concerns about communities being targeted, including those already fearful of Mr. Trump’s aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigration. Memphis police officers in recent years have been accused of aggressive, discriminatory behavior, particularly against the city’s Black residents.
There is also concern about adding dozens of criminal cases to the court docket in Shelby County, where the judicial system is already overwhelmed and the jail has a record of poor conditions.
Seamus Hughes contributed research. Anna Griffin and Julie Bosman contributed reporting.
Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville.
