A Memphis mother says President Donald Trump’s federal crime initiative has done what years of appeals to local officials failed to do: quiet the gunfire and give her children the freedom to play outside.
“For once, I’m walking to my mailbox and it’s quiet,” Dalisia Ballinger told News Outlet. “I’m hearing the birds chirp. I’m hearing the birds sing. I’m seeing children play in the middle of the street. I’m seeing fathers playing football.”
The dramatic change has made Ballinger, a former journalist and victim of violent crime, one of the most vocal advocates for the Memphis Safe Task Force as the operation reaches its one-year mark.
It has also drawn her into an increasingly bitter dispute with Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, a Democrat. Mulroy is suing over two new state oversight laws, prompting a petition calling on him to drop the case and explain how his office handles prosecutions stemming from the task force’s work.
A Memphis Police Department officer, right, patrols with members of the National Guard, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)
“Public safety should not be up for debate,” Ballinger said. “I don’t care if you are a Republican. I don’t care if you are a Democrat.”
Trump created the multi-agency operation through a presidential memorandum issued Sept. 15, 2025. The directive called on federal, state and local agencies to work together against street crime and violent crime in Memphis. The U.S. Marshals Service leads the effort, which also includes mobilized Tennessee National Guard personnel.
The White House said Tuesday that the operation had resulted in 12,747 arrests as of Sept. 15. Those figures included 131 homicide arrests, 1,276 firearms arrests and 1,408 arrests involving known gang members.
The administration also said the task force had removed 2,160 illegal guns from Memphis streets and helped recover 189 missing children.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign a memorandum to send federal resources to Memphis, Tennessee, for a surge against local crime, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2025. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
White House figures show overall crime in Memphis falling by nearly 36% from the previous year. Murders declined 36%, robberies dropped 42% and vehicle thefts fell 57%. However, city data indicated crime was already decreasing before the task force began, and the figures do not determine how much of the improvement was directly tied to the federal operation.
“That era is over. President Trump rejected the excuses, restored law and order, and once again proved that decline is a choice,” the White House said.
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For Ballinger, the impact of the Memphis crime crackdown is most evident in the newfound ability of her children to spend time outdoors without the fear that once defined life in the neighborhood.
She described a shooting four houses from her home in which, she said, about 30 bullets hit a house where a grandmother and her grandchildren lived. The family never came back, according to Ballinger, and the abandoned property was eventually swallowed by grass and weeds.
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“We’ve been begging for years for our local leaders for assistance and for help,” Ballinger said. “My children deserve peace, and with the Memphis Safe Task Force being here, we’ve finally been able to get that peace.”
Ballinger and other supporters now say the arrests will have limited value if prosecutors later reduce charges or dismiss cases without providing a clear explanation.
Federal law enforcement officers stand at the intersection of Beale St. and N. Second St., Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Memphis. (George Walker IV/AP Photo)
A Change.org petition titled “Stop Memphis DA From Protecting Criminals” had collected nearly 10,000 verified signatures by Wednesday.
The petition calls on Mulroy to drop a May lawsuit challenging the Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act and a separate law that authorizes the Tennessee attorney general to audit his office’s decisions in task force cases.
The accountability law requires Mulroy’s office to submit a report every 10 business days when it settles or dismisses a charge arising from the task force. The second law allows the state attorney general to review prosecutorial decisions in those cases and ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to appoint a temporary prosecutor.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy is challenging two Tennessee laws that increase oversight of his office’s handling of Memphis Safe Task Force cases. (News Outlet)
Mulroy argues that both laws unconstitutionally single out Shelby County, intrude on the discretion of a locally elected prosecutor and burden his staff with duplicative reporting. His office said it already reports case outcomes under existing Tennessee law.
“These bills target Shelby County unfairly and infringe on the rights of Shelby County voters,” Mulroy said when the lawsuit was filed. He has characterized the dispute as a battle over whether Shelby County voters or state officials in Nashville control the district attorney’s office.
Petition supporters see the lawsuit differently.
“Thanks to President Trump, the Memphis Safe Task Force has delivered more for this city in one year than anyone thought possible,” Ballinger, one of the petition’s leading voices, said in a statement. “While federal, state, and local agents risk their lives taking criminals off our streets, DA Mulroy is fighting in court to hide how his office is undermining this task force.”
President Donald Trump arrives to participate in a roundtable discussion on public safety at a Tennessee Air National Guard Base, Monday, March 23, 2026, in Memphis. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Tennessee state Sen. Brent Taylor previously pressed Mulroy for details after his office reported that 430 of 514 felony cases resolved in December 2025 ended without prison time and that 166 of the cases were categorized as violent. The lawmakers said the figures left unanswered how many defendants in violent cases received no prison sentence. Mulroy has accused his Republican critics of distorting crime data for political purposes.
Ballinger rejected the claim that the petition is merely a partisan campaign against a Democratic prosecutor.
“We have children. We have regular people that might not even be into politics,” she said. “We deserve peace. Whether it’s on the East Coast, the West Coast or South, we all deserve peace.”
Some Memphis residents think the police department, Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and FBI are effectively fighting crime. (Fox News)
The task force has also drawn fierce opposition. The ACLU of Tennessee and several Memphis residents have accused agents of aggressive policing and retaliation against people who record law enforcement.
Four residents filed a federal lawsuit this year alleging harassment, unlawful arrests and physical mistreatment while exercising their First Amendment rights.
The allegations have not been proven in court, while task force supporters point to thousands of arrests and sharply falling crime numbers as evidence the operation is working.
Ballinger said legitimate complaints should be reviewed, but she does not believe they justify dismantling an operation she credits with making her neighborhood livable again.
“I’m all for fairness, and I’m all for law and order,” she said. “If we need to go back to the table [and] restructure so that people can feel safe, we can definitely put that on the board.”
For Ballinger, the anniversary is measured less by government statistics than by what she can see and hear beyond her front door.
“It was noticeably enough to where it’s like, ‘Wow, there’s kids actually outside playing,’” she said.
News Outlet reached out to Mulroy’s office for comment.
