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A former Chicago detective says the Windy City should look to a southern city where murders have plunged since the National Guard members moved in to find a way out of its crime crisis.
Homicides in Memphis fell 43.7% during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period the prior year, according to data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association. President Donald Trump had signed an executive order in September 2025 authorizing the deployment of the National Guard, allowing troops to arrive in Memphis that fall.
On Monday night alone, nine people were shot across Chicago, including three who were killed. In one incident, two men were critically injured after gunfire rang out in the city’s Near North Side neighborhood.
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A police officer works at the scene where a 47-year-old man and a 39-year-old man were shot on the 2400 block of West Monroe Street on July 7, 2024, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“When we were in our living room, and we thought that another sporadic rainstorm hit Chicago, so we go outside in the windows, next thing you know, we just hear like lights everywhere,” one person told FOX 32.
Retired Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy told Fox News Digital that Chicago officials aren’t utilizing federal resources to clean up the city’s crime problem amid a shortage of officers.
“Chicago has just 2,500 fewer police officers than it did just two or three years ago. You can’t keep doing more with less. It’s got to come down,” Roy said. “As far as cooperation in preventative levels, which involves street-level policing, there’s very little cooperation, if any, between Chicago and the federal authorities.”
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The city’s police officer shortage has been exacerbated by a November 2025 decision to pause classes at its training academy and slow hiring to roughly 50 recruits per month, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The cut in training and hiring was made to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall that the city faced.
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Historic Beale Street, known as the Home of the Blues in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. (Ron Buskirk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
Roy pointed to Memphis in particular as a “success story” on what happens when local and state governments effectively partner with the federal government, as the National Guard and federal law enforcement agencies surged into the city.
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“Memphis is a success story on how this can work out. From the material I’ve looked at, they had cooperation from the governor on down, some reluctance at the city level, but they’ve done the right things the right way and it results in the, it’s produced the results,” Roy said.
“The mere presence of police serves as a disincentive to commit crime. You want people to say, ‘hey, people are going out to do something, a robbery, a burglary or whatever. Man, it’s hot out here. The police are everywhere. Let’s forget about it. Let’s do it a different time, a different place. Let’s move on.’ That’s how you prevent crime.”
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“Done right, done properly, it is a godsend,” he said.
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Memphis recorded 67 homicides in the first six months of 2026, down from 119 during the same period in 2025, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
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Chicago Police Department headquarters on May 17, 2021. (Chicago Tribune via Getty Images)
If done properly in Chicago, Roy said bringing in the National Guard to help would “mirror those in Memphis and other locations where there’s been a truly cooperative effort between the federal and local government.”
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Roy said it’s not entirely unprecedented for a Democratic governor to deploy its National Guard to deter crime.
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New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed at least 1,000 National Guard members to New York City’s subway system in March 2024 following a series of high-profile crimes, saying it creates a deterrent effect.
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“For people who are thinking about bringing a gun or knife on the subway, at least this creates a deterrent effect. They might be thinking, ‘You know what, it just may just not be worth it because I listened to the mayor and I listened to the governor and they have a lot more people who are going to be checking my bags,'” Hochul said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois governor’s office for comment.