Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force did its job

OPINION:

If my son had been in his playroom when a bullet came through the window, he might not be here today. That is a thought no parent should have to live with, but in Memphis, Tennessee, thousands of us lived with it every day.

The shooting into my son’s playroom was not the only shooting my family survived.

I was gardening in my backyard when bullets started flying over my head. I crawled through my own yard to reach safety. My home was broken into again and again by the same man, who kept finding his way back onto the streets every time he was arrested.

That was what raising a child in Memphis had become. You did not wonder whether the gunfire would start. You wondered when.

Then, one year ago, President Trump did what no one else would.

On Sept. 15, 2025, President Trump signed the presidential memorandum creating the Memphis Safe Task Force. He sent more than 30 federal, state and local agencies into our streets: the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the National Guard, working alongside Memphis police.

Politicians had talked about Memphis crime for decades. Mr. Trump acted.

The results are not a matter of opinion. In the past year, the task force has made more than 10,000 arrests. More than 1,700 illegal guns and more than 1,000 gang members have been taken off the streets. Violent crime is down more than 40%, and murder is down nearly that much. Robbery is down almost 60%.

At my house, this has meant long-awaited peace and quiet.

Neighborhood blocks that had grown used to constant crime went weeks without gunfire. This year, for the first time in six years, my family celebrated a birthday in our own backyard.

The president promised to make Memphis safe again. For families like mine, he is keeping that promise.

Still, an arrest is only the first step. What happens next is decided by one man: Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy. He decides whether the people arrested by the task force are prosecuted, whether charges get reduced and whether cases quietly disappear.

Mr. Mulroy was elected with more than $600,000 in support connected to George Soros, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. Instead of backing the effort that made our neighborhoods livable again, Mr. Mulroy has said, “I don’t think the National Guard has been much help at all. I think it’s been a waste of money.”

Mr. Mulroy is actively working against the president and the task force.

Our state legislators saw the danger. State Sen. Brent Taylor and state Rep. John Gillespie wrote the Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act, which requires the DA’s office to publicly report, every 10 days, any task force felony case it reduces, dismisses or settles.

It does not control his decisions; it just makes them public. Mr. Mulroy has sued to kill the law.

Federal agents spent a year taking criminals off our streets, and our DA spent his energy in court making sure that we never learn what his office does with those arrests.

I spent years working as a news reporter here in Memphis. When data is public, families do not have to rely on rumors or political spin. We can see for ourselves whether the people terrorizing our neighborhoods are staying off our streets or walking right back onto them.

So I keep coming back to one question: What does Mr. Mulroy not want us to see?

If Mr. Mulroy’s office is prosecuting these cases aggressively, the reports would prove it. They would be his best defense. A DA who is doing his job has nothing to fear from a piece of paper that says so.

That is why I am supporting a Change.org petition calling on Mr. Mulroy to drop his lawsuit and comply with the law. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, has endorsed the Change.org petition. So have Messrs. Gillespie and Taylor, the lawmakers who wrote the law that Mr. Mulroy is suing to kill. You can find the petition at change.org/memphis-crime.

This is not about party. I am not asking my district attorney to change his politics. I am asking him to show his work and do his job.

A year ago, Mr. Trump refused to give up on Memphis. The task force did its part. Our police did theirs. The only official still fighting accountability is the one whose decisions we cannot see.

Drop the lawsuit, Mr. Mulroy. Memphis has a right to know.

• Dalisia Ballinger is a mother and former Memphis news reporter. She is a supporter of the Change.org petition “Stop Memphis DA From Protecting Criminals.”