09/16/2025
President Trump signed an executive order to send the National Guard to Memphis. What’s happening with crime there? We put together a fact sheet examining six-month trends for 10 different crime types.
Here's what we found👇
1️⃣In the first half of 2025, Memphis’s homicide rate was 4% lower than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the 30 study cities was -17%). Memphis's homicide rate was 58% higher in the first half of 2025 than it was in the first half of 2019. The homicide rate in Memphis is among the highest in the study sample and is dropping slower than it is in other large cities.
2️⃣The robbery rate during the first half of 2025 was 18% lower than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the 34 study cities was -20%). Memphis’s robbery rate in the first half of 2025 was 23% lower than in the first half of 2019 (30% lower in the study cities).
3️⃣Memphis’s carjacking rate during the first half of 2025 was 34% lower than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the nine study cities was -24%). Memphis’s carjacking rate in the first half of 2025 was 45% lower than in the first half of 2019 (3% lower in the study cities).
4️⃣In the first half of 2025, Memphis’s domestic violence rate was 3% lower than in the first half of 2024 (average change in nine study cities was +3%). Their domestic violence rate in the first half of 2025 was 7% lower than in the first half of 2019 (8% lower in the study cities).
5️⃣In the first half of 2025, Memphis’s residential burglary rate was 26% lower than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the 18 study cities was -19%). Their residential burglary rate in the first half of 2025 was 49% lower than in the first half of 2019 (47% lower in the study cities).
6️⃣Memphis’s non-residential burglary rate in the first half of 2025 was 18% lower than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the 18 study cities was -18%). Their non-residential burglary rate in the first half of 2025 was 6% lower than in the first half of 2019 (identical in the study cities).
7️⃣In the first half of 2025, Memphis’s larceny rate was 16% lower than in the first half of 2024. The average change in the 36 study cities with data for larceny was -12%. Memphis’s larceny rate in the first half of 2025 was 12% lower than in the first half of 2019, while larceny was 19% lower in the study cities.
8️⃣In a sample of 16 large U.S. Cities with available data from 2018 to 2022, Memphis had by far the highest rate of gun theft in the sample, at 546 per 100,000 people in 2022 (nearly 2x that of Detroit, MI, the city with the next highest rate of gun thefts in 2022, at 297 per 100,000).
9️⃣Memphis’s shoplifting rate in the first half of 2025 was 1% higher than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the 23 study cities was -12%). Their shoplifting rate in the first half of 2025 was 2% lower than in the first half of 2019 (4% lower in the study cities).
🔟Memphis’s motor vehicle theft rate was 36% lower in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2024 (average change in the 36 study cities was -25%). Their MVT rate in the first half of 2025 was 100% higher than in the first half of 2019 (25% higher in the study cities).
1️⃣1️⃣Memphis’s drug offense rate in the first half of 2025 was 7% higher in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2024 (no difference in the average rates for the 21 study cities). Their drug offense rate in the first half of 2025 was 5% lower than in the first half of 2019 (27% lower in the study cities).
Read more in our new fact sheet on crime in Memphis: https://counciloncj.org/crime-in-memphis-what-you-need-to-know/
The monthly data, both counts and rates, for Memphis and other cities is viewable in the Offense Dashboard at the bottom of our 2025 Mid-Year Crime Trends report: https://counciloncj.org/crime-trends-in-u-s-cities-mid-year-2025-update/ -dashboard
