For the Summer 2026 Issue of @CityJournal I report from inside the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF), led by the @USMSMemphis. When @realDonaldTrump announced that the @TheJusticeDept would be launching task forces to fight crime in cities like D.C. and Memphis, his opponents assured us that the efforts would be unsuccessful. But as I note in my essay, “Through the first quarter of 2026—marking nearly seven months since the task force’s formation—crime in Memphis continued to decline sharply… [M]urders over that period were down 29 percent. Rapes fell 33 percent. Robbery was down 49 percent, while aggravated assaults dropped 27 percent. The declines were just as pronounced for major property crimes, including burglary (33 percent) and vehicle theft (66 percent).” The work of the MSTF is clearly driving this success—to the almost-exclusive benefit of the city’s black residents (once again illustrating that any conversations about race and law enforcement are incomplete without accounting for the distribution of the benefits of enforcement). The numbers almost speak for themselves, but I wanted to get a clearer sense of what was going so well in Bluff City. So, “I flew down to Memphis for an inside look at the task force and the work its members are doing to turn the city around. Both the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Tennessee, D. Michael Dunavant and Tyreece L. Miller, sat for exclusive interviews and arranged a nighttime ride-along with one of the task force’s “flex” teams, roving enforcement units deployed to crime hot spots as needed. I witnessed one night’s work in what may become one of the greatest urban turnarounds in decades.” Read about my night with the MSTF, and the great work they’re doing here: city-journal.org/article/mem…