MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Police Department arrested 190 people on felony charges and more on misdemeanors in a six-week “proactive enforcement detail” targeting high-crime areas, MPD Director Michael Rallings announced Monday.
Many of those charges involved illegal drugs, illegal drugs and violent crimes, Rallings said, announcing the results of what MPD called “Operation Spring Cleaning,” which ran from April 27 to June 7. The operation involved MPD’s Organized Crime Unit, Multiagency Gang Unit and TACT Unit.
In addition to drugs, Rallings said 77 firearms were recovered. Rallings said 29 of them had been reported stolen, 22 out of vehicles.
“We as a state need to do something about guns in cars, because it is threatening the safety of our citizens,” said Rallings, who said MPD recovers some 3,000 guns a year off the streets every year.
“I am confident that there are many more guns stolen than we know,” he said, urging citizens to record the make, model and serial number of their firearms and to keep them secure.
Rallings said that overall, crime in Memphis was down 6% this year.
He also gave more detail on another recent police operation involving heroin and fentanyl. Of 30 people indicted in Operation Non-Believer, 16 had been captured, Rallings said.
MPD has responded to 288 suspected drug overdoses this year, 41 of them fatal, Rallings said.
