Operation: Safe Community Crime Plan

The beginnings of the Operation: Safe Community Crime Plan were laid in 2005 when, concerned that crime was on the rise with no plan to address it, then-Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton, Memphis Mayor Willie W. Herenton, U.S. Attorney David Kustoff, District Attorney Bill Gibbons, and Sheriff Mark Luttrell met with corporate leaders of Memphis Tomorrow to discuss ways to incorporate crime reduction as an economic growth imperative.

From those conversations, Operation: Safe Community was formed and incorporated into Memphis Fast Forward - a new public/private partnership organized to grow the Memphis economy by focusing on four key priorities. Chief among them was to "make our community safer," which was dependent on success with the other three Memphis Fast Forward priorities: create jobs, produce a better-educated workforce, and improve public health.

Working through the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, the business and government leaders of Operation: Safe Community have since assembled an unprecedented number of team members to work with them from more than 100 public and private agencies and have completed two consecutive five-year plans and presented the third five-year plan.