Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis was unclear on which agency will lead crime reduction efforts in a local-federal task force. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout)

Gov. Bill Lee’s Friday press conference about deploying the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis was long on spectacle but short on substance.

Troops are set to arrive as soon as next week, but the public was given no clear sense of what success is supposed to look like. Will crime fall by 5%, 10% or 15% in the next two weeks, two months, or two years? Without concrete metrics, there is no way to hold the governor, local law enforcement or federal partners accountable.

The lack of clarity stretched across every level of leadership. When the police Chief C.J. Davis and the representative of the U.S. Marshals Service

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