Memphis Police Department Chief C.J. Davis will remain the city’s chief law enforcement officer when the National Guard arrives, Davis and Memphis Mayor Paul Young said Friday, Sept. 12. 

Young said Davis’ status as the city’s top cop would not change when the guard arrives. The city still does not know when the deployment will begin, how many personnel will come or where they will be stationed. 

“There will be a lot of coordination, and obviously, we’re still, this is something we’re all new to. So we’re going to be learning, working with our attorneys, but Chief Davis will remain the chief of police and continue to drive law enforcement in the city of Memphis,” Young said during a news conference. 

Davis spoke to reporters after Young. She said the city hoped to reach a memorandum of understanding with the National Guard. Such a document would presumably govern how the guard would behave in Memphis. 

Memphis Mayor Paul Young did not ask for the National Guard to be brought to Memphis and does not believe it is the way to bring down crime in the city, he said during a press conference Friday, Sept. 12.

“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime. However, that decision has been made,” Young said. “And as mayor of the city that I love, Memphis, Tennessee, my commitment is to make sure that we work strategically to ensure that this happens in a way that truly benefits and strengthens our community.”

Young said the City of Memphis is in talks with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the federal government about the National Guard’s deployment to Memphis. President Donald Trump said during a Friday morning interview on “Fox & Friends” he would be sending the National Guard to Memphis.

For now, Young said, he does not know when the National Guard will arrive. Other details are still being determined, he said, such as how many guardsmen will be deployed, how long they will stay in Memphis, where they will be stationed and what their specific assignments may be.

The National Guard is coming to Memphis, President Donald Trump said Friday, Sept. 12, on the cable news show “Fox & Friends.” 

“We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is deeply troubled. He’s a Democrat mayor. The mayor is happy and ... the governor is happy. Deeply troubled. We’re going to fix that just like we did Washington,” Trump said. “I would’ve preferred going to Chicago.” 

Gov. Bill Lee, in a statement on Friday, said the next phase of combatting crime in Memphis will involve a “comprehensive mission with the Tennessee National Guard, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Memphis Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies, and we are working closely with the Trump Administration to determine the most effective role for each of these agencies to best serve Memphians.”

Lee stopped short of saying he had activated the Tennessee National Guard. 

State and local leadership reacted largely along partisan lines to President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would send the National Guard to Memphis. 

Republicans praised the move. Democrats called it unnecessary. Here’s a roundup of some of those reactions.

Tennessee Senate Minority Leader Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis:

“As a lifelong Memphian, I want to be clear: We do not need the National Guard occupying our city. The last time a U.S. president sent the Guard to Memphis was in 1968, after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel and our community was in deep grief and unrest. Other times the Guard was deployed to Southern cities, it was to enforce civil rights laws when segregationists refused to comply. That history matters — because what we are seeing now is not about justice, it’s about politics.

“This is an abuse of power, using troops to score political points off of crime statistics, even though overall crime in Memphis is down to a 25-year low. That’s not leadership — that’s overreach.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s real-time reaction to the National Guard coming to Memphis was one of support for Mayor Paul Young.

Less than an hour after President Donald Trump announced in a Friday, Sept. 12, television appearance that he would send the troops to Memphis, Tennessee’s only Democratic U.S. Representative — and the highest ranking Democrat in the state — spoke about the news publicly after a planned press conference at Memphis International Airport.

Cohen said Mayor Young, a Democrat who holds a nonpartisan office, has little choice in the matter and that the city isn’t in a position to resist via court challenge as Chicago officials have done.

“The mayor’s got a tough job. He’s got to look out for the overall good of the city. We do have a crime problem,” Cohen said Friday. “He’s got to work with (Tennessee) Governor (Bill) Lee and the state – and the federal government too. I’m not going to criticize Mayor Young and (Memphis Police Department) Chief (C.J.) Davis. I think they are doing a good job, and they are going to do a better job.”

Memphis Mayor Paul Young said Thursday, Sept. 11, that the National Guard could be deployed to Memphis, confirming media reports about the matter.

In a statement sent to media outlets, Young said, “Earlier this week, I was informed that the Governor and the President were considering deploying the National Guard and other resources to Memphis. I am committed to working to ensure any efforts strengthen our community and build on our progress.” 

Like Lee did in a statement on Wednesday, Young highlighted the ongoing federal law enforcement resources in the city and said the city needed more of those resources. 

“We agree with Governor Lee that effective support for Memphis comes through focused initiatives that deliver results like we have seen with the FBI, state troopers, and other law enforcement partnerships. What we need most are financial resources for intervention and prevention, additional patrol officers, and case support to strengthen MPD’s investigations,” Young said. 

The White House, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office and Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s administration have discussed a possible deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

The person, whom The Daily Memphian agreed not to name due to the sensitive and evolving nature of the situation, said the discussions remain preliminary and subject to what President Donald Trump decides to do. The president had previously said in a radio interview that he would consider sending troops to Memphis. 

The source said legal restrictions could prevent some police actions by the National Guard in Memphis. They said any deployment locally would be far different than the recent arrival of troops in Washington, D.C., because of those legal hurdles.

The person said National Guard troops could not set up roadblocks or arrest people for crimes because they are not local law enforcement officers. They would be allowed to guard federal assets — for example, the Odell Horton Federal Building in Downtown Memphis — or respond to a natural disaster.