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Violent crime and murder have declined in Memphis, Nashville and most U.S. cities

According to a report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, violent crime in Memphis has declined compared to last year, as have many major cities across the country.

The report includes preliminary data from 69 different U.S. cities compiled from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System, showing that major violent crimes in those cities have declined by just over 6%. The compiled data tracks the first six months of the year, from January 1 to June 30, and compares it to the same period in 2023.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association is a group of police chiefs in America's most populous cities that addresses the challenges of policing. The organization includes cities such as Los Angeles and New York City, although New York City was not mentioned in the report released earlier this month.

Memphis saw an even larger decline in violent crimes—murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault—compared to the entire sample, a decline of about 8.3%, with Memphis comparing this year's data to last year's near-record data.

The city saw a national decline in murders and rapes in the first half of the year. In Memphis, murders fell by 17.3% and rapes fell by 9.2%. The national declines in these two crimes were 17.4% and 9.7%, respectively.

The number of serious assaults in Memphis decreased only slightly in the first half of the year, by 0.7 percent, which corresponds to 26 fewer reported incidents. The national trend was a decrease of 5.4 percent.

However, the number of robberies decreased significantly in Memphis compared to the rest of the country. According to the data, Memphis saw a 27.6% decrease in robberies compared to the national decrease of 6.1%.

City and Memphis police officials have praised the drop in crime in recent months and noted that improvements are still needed, but they expressed relief that police efforts appear to be paying off.

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The decline is also consistent with crime data from the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission, which uses data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Both the FBI and TBI crime data come from department reports.

Of the 69 cities for which data was collected, Memphis and Nashville were the only two cities in Tennessee that were tracked. Nashville saw a decrease in every category except rape. Compared to the first half of 2023, Nashville saw a 21.7% increase in rapes – from 267 in the first six months of 2023 to 325 rapes in the same period in 2024.

Rape was also the only crime category in which Nashville surpassed Memphis. In the first six months of 2024, 167 rapes were reported in Memphis.

Memphis had 21.2% more violent crimes reported than Nashville. Additionally, Memphis had 193.2% more murders (129 versus 44), 71.9% more robberies (1,028 versus 598), and 16.5% more aggravated assaults (3,763 versus 3,229) than Nashville.

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