A federal task force says it made Memphis, Tennessee much safer. The group just finished its first year. The White House shared the numbers this week.

The group is called the Memphis Safe Task Force. President Trump set it up. He signed the order on September 15, 2025. That order said Memphis had "tremendous levels of violent crime."

More than 30 police agencies joined the task force. Some are federal. Some are state. Some are local. The U.S. Marshals Service led the work. The Tennessee National Guard sent help too.

Here is what officials say happened in one year.

The task force found 189 missing kids. It took 2,160 illegal guns off the streets. It made 12,747 arrests in all.

Officials broke out some of those arrests by category, though the numbers below add up to only part of the 12,747 total. Agents arrested 1,408 people they call gang members. They arrested 1,363 people on drug charges. They arrested 1,276 people for gun crimes. They arrested 131 people for homicides. They arrested 125 people for sex crimes. Officials did not spell out what the rest of the arrests were for.

Back in June, the same task force had made 10,000 arrests. It had found 154 kids by then. It had taken 1,708 guns off the streets. The numbers have grown fast since June.

The White House says murders in Memphis fell 36 percent from last year. It says total crime fell almost 36 percent too. Other crimes dropped as well. Car thefts fell 57 percent. Store theft fell 44 percent. Robberies fell 42 percent.

President Trump gave credit to "the federal surge and agency coordination," the White House said.

But the report leaves out one big fact. It does not show how much crime was already falling before the task force started. Memphis crime had begun to drop back in 2025. That was before the surge began. Total crime fell 27 percent that year. Killings fell 26 percent. So part of this drop may have started on its own.

A close look at the report found something else. It does not split the "before" numbers from the "after" numbers. That makes it hard to know how much credit the task force truly earns. The drop in crime looks real. But the numbers alone do not prove the task force caused all of it.

U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller runs the task force. He works in the Western District of Tennessee. Back in June, he called the arrest count "unprecedented."

The Memphis push is not the only one of its kind. The government has run big crime pushes like it in other cities this year too. Backers say more agents make streets safer fast. Critics worry about how long outside agents should stay in a city. They also worry that local cops may lose control of their own streets.

For now, the task force keeps working. Officials have not said when it will end.

The task force has not named the people it arrested. It also has not said how many cases have gone to court yet. Arrests are not the same as convictions. A person is still innocent until a judge or jury says otherwise.

Some of the arrest categories, like gang membership, come from police claims. They are not always the same as a formal charge. The White House report groups big numbers together. It does not give case-by-case detail.

Illegal guns are a problem here in South Texas too. Local and federal agents often stop guns headed south toward Mexico. Many are tied to cartel crime along the border. The Memphis push shows a different path. Agents there go after guns through arrests and warrants. They do not rely on border checkpoints.

The Memphis numbers show how one of these big federal pushes plays out over a full year. The results look strong. But the full story is not that simple.