Memphis Task Force Finds 101 Kids

Nov 14 2025 Staff Writer

In a 40-day campaign, the Memphis Safe Task Force has located and returned 101 missing children. Rescuing some from potentially dangerous situations. The mission underscores the power of interagency cooperation. Combining the U.S. Marshals' tracking capabilities with local law-enforcement muscle to bring vulnerable children home.

(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

A remarkable operation is unfolding in Memphis, where the U.S. Marshals-led Memphis Safe Task Force has safely returned 101 missing children to their families in just the past 40 days. The effort, announced on November 8, speaks to the power of cross-agency work the Marshals’ Missing Child Unit partnered with local and state law enforcement to bring these most vulnerable kids home.

This isn’t the first success for the task force, which only formally launched on October 1. By late October, they’d already recovered 84 children who’d gone missing in Shelby County alone. Some of them have traveled out of state. Among them was a 15-year-old who had run away and ended up in Hawaii, where Marshals located them following a tip and arranged for their safe return.

State officials have been clear: for many of these runaways, the danger is real. Trafficked or falling into crime. As Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said, a “vast majority” of the recovered children are runaways, quite possibly trafficked, and the Safe Task Force isn’t stopping at recovery. They’re working to connect families to support services and, where needed, remove children from harmful situations.

Governor Bill Lee added a firm commitment to keep the task force alive, stating that it will “last forever” if the risk remains. The initiative is also making waves beyond missing-child recovery. In its first 41 days, the task force cleared over 1,000 warrants, arrested more than 2,300 individuals, and seized hundreds of firearms. U.S.

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For veterans and global-news followers, this mission is more than local crime control. It represents a model of public-safety work where federal tracking skill meets on-the-ground child rescue. In a world where law enforcement is often measured by arrests, success here is shown in the quiet reunions of children with their families. A different kind of win.