In the weeks since the launch of the Memphis Safe Community Task Force, one thing has become increasingly clear: there was never a concrete public safety strategy laid out — but there is a communications strategy. Or, at least, there’s been an effective narrative machine that benefits from the absence of one.

From the very beginning, there was no public briefing that outlined how success would be measured, which agencies would lead which components, or how different arms of law enforcement and government would coordinate their work. There was no press push to demand these details either. I asked these questions directly but never received an honest or concrete response. That vacuum left room for a dangerous sleight of hand: letting daily press releases become the story instead of the actual outcomes on the ground.

But since this information is not being disaggregated, we don’t know who’s being arrested. We don’t know for what. We don’t know if those arrests have any actual relationship to violent crime trends. We don’t know what happens to those cases after the flashing lights fade. And we don’t know what other resources — violence prevention dollars, intervention programs, community-based safety strategies — are being displaced or defunded while the spectacle of “tough on crime” gets the spotlight.

This is classic Copaganda: emphasizing the appearance of action through law enforcement activity without ever proving its efficacy or necessity.