Former Chicago Detective Urges National Guard Model After Memphis Homicides Drop 43.7%
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 13
Former Chicago Detective Urges National Guard Model After Memphis Homicides Drop 43.7%
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 13
Summary
Eugene Roy, a retired Chicago police detective chief, said Chicago should consider a Memphis-style National Guard deployment as the city grapples with persistent gun violence, including nine people shot and three killed Monday night.
Memphis logged 67 homicides in the first half of 2026, down from 119 a year earlier, after National Guard troops arrived under a September 2025 Trump executive order and federal agencies surged into the city.
Roy argued Chicago is failing to use federal help even as it has about 2,500 fewer police officers than two or three years ago, weakening street-level prevention and deterrence.
That staffing gap widened after Chicago slowed academy classes and cut hiring to about 50 recruits a month in November 2025 to help close a $1.2 billion budget shortfall.
Roy cast the idea as politically workable, pointing to Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul's 2024 deployment of at least 1,000 National Guard members to the city's subway system.