MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – While Memphis is reporting a historic decline in violent crime, one of its nine police precincts is moving in the opposite direction. The Airways precinct has recorded 16 murders so far this year, compared to 10 at the same point in 2025 — a 60 percent increase.
Citywide, overall violent crime is down more than 36 percent year to date, and a Memphis Shelby Crime Commission report released last month, based on preliminary TBI data, shows violent crime in Memphis is down 45 percent compared to 2023, when it peaked. The first half of 2026 was also lower than the first half of 2011 — the most recent year with the lowest violent crime rate — by 5.2 percent.
One precinct bucking the trend
Much of the Airways precinct’s increase is concentrated in the Orange Mound area. Keith Leachman, president and founder of the nonprofit Stop the Killing, Cut the Beef, has lived and worked in the neighborhood for decades. A memorial wall near the area, which has stood for about three years, honors more than 250 people killed in Orange Mound over the past 30 years. Leachman knew many of them personally.
“My boy Gramps, Lil Mull, Jason Knox, J Money,” Leachman said.
“We just got a lot of nonsense foolishness going on around here,” he said. “You get upset, it leads to gunfire.”…