MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There’s some encouraging news from Memphis Police — since last July, major crimes are going down.

The Shelby County Crime Commission and the University of Memphis released preliminary numbers Wednesday with a graphic showing part 1 crimes. Those are violent crimes including homicide, rape, robbery, larceny, aggravated assault, burglary, auto theft, and human trafficking.

Those crimes steadily dropped from July until March of this year, when the reports of those crimes were nearly cut in half from eight months before.

“The trend for the last five months (November 2023 – March 2024) is especially encouraging,” the commission said in a news release.

Police Chief C.J. Davis recently talked about the success of a crime-fighting initiative called Operation Zero, though she offered few details on data at the time.

“Crime is down around the city. Auto thefts are down about 30 percent,” Davis said a month ago.

The issue of crime has dominated headlines for years in Memphis, where the city broke homicide records in 2021 and 2023. Memphis Police reported 12,555 motor vehicle thefts last year, an average of 35 to 45 cars stolen per day.

Crime Commission President Bill Gibbons said in a recent column that the state legislature could make big strides toward improving public safety by tightening restrictions on firearms that have been loosened in recent years, leading to an explosion in gun crimes in and around Memphis.