MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis-area business leaders are pleading with Tennessee’s governor and Republican lawmakers for help amid a violent crime epidemic they say is hurting residents and businesses.
“As business and community leaders, confidence in our local public safety system has fallen to an unsustainable low. Crime is impacting our neighbors, customers, employees, and investors,” Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, wrote. “Tennesseans deserve to feel safe buying groceries, getting gas and going to work. Our community needs your direct intervention.”
Townsend hand-deliverered the letter Wednesday to the offices of Gov. Bill Lee, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
The letter was signed by some 90 executives from companies with Memphis ties including FedEx, First Horizon, Nike, the Carlisle Group and University of Memphis.
The letter cites a post-pandemic surge in organized “smash-and-grab” rings, violent crimes committed with firearms and a lack of criminal prosecution by an overwhelmed judicial system where jury trials have dropped from more than 200 a year to fewer than 40 last year. It also decried “catch and release” bail policies and plea deals as street gangs terrorize citizens.
According to the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, overall crime increased almost 10 percent from 2022 to 2023, and violent crime increased by 5 percent.
Memphis set a record with 397 homicides — more than one per day — last year. But Townsend says the public defender’s office has only two staff members to handle 37 first-degree murder cases.
“A lack of resources cannot be an excuse for a state as fiscally sound as the State of Tennessee,” Townsend said.
Josh Hammond, co-owner of Buster’s Liquors, was one of the business leaders who signed on to the letter. His store was burglarized, not once, not twice, but three times in just a year and a half, costing the business roughly $100,000 to rebuild.
You’re just disgusted because we’ve got a great city and you’re letting these thugs ruin it for everyone,” Hammond said.
But Townsend says it’s not too late to turn things around — to make for a safer, and prosperous Memphis — so long as the state steps in.
The Chamber asked lawmakers to support a list of executive and legislative items they says could help, including $50 million for crime reduction strategies in tourist zones, resources to help clear cases using judicial officials from outside Shelby County and support for blended sentencing and bail reform measures introduced by Memphis-are state Sen. Brent Taylor.
“We are committed to investing in our local communities, to growing the tax base and providing the necessary resources to address some of the root causes of crime and poverty. We have more than $3 billion of local capital projects in the planning process, plus represent tens of thousands of employees asking for your intervention,” Townsend wrote. “Shelby County can be a model for the country and regain its world-renowned reputation as a premier entertainment, distribution, industrial, health care, and technology center. Your leadership and support are needed now more than ever.”
We reached out to Governor’s Lee’s office for comment, but have not yet heard back.
