Drive through Chickasaw Gardens on a Tuesday night at 10 p.m. and count the patrol cars. Not MPD. Private. A white sedan with a security company decal making slow loops past the historic homes between Central and Walnut Grove. A second vehicle parked at the entrance off East Parkway, engine idling, driver watching traffic.
This has been normal in Chickasaw Gardens for years. The neighborhood association has contracted with private security for as long as most residents can remember. What’s changed is that neighborhoods that never considered private patrols are now picking up the phone.
Since Eliza Fletcher was killed on September 2, private security firms across the Memphis metro area are reporting a 30-40% jump in residential inquiries. The demand is coming from every direction: individual homeowners calling about patrol services, HOA boards holding emergency meetings about security budgets, and property managers in rental-heavy areas trying to reassure tenants.
The trend was already building before Fletcher. Her murder accelerated it into something that looks, from where I’m sitting, like a permanent shift.
The Numbers Behind the Surge
Memphis recorded 346 homicides in 2021. Through the first eight months of 2022, the city was tracking close to that pace again. Aggravated assaults, carjackings, and property crimes have been running well above where they were five years ago. These aren’t abstract numbers for the people living in neighborhoods that straddle the line between “safe” and “not anymore.”
East Memphis, which has traditionally been one of the city’s most stable residential areas, saw property crime increase through the first half of 2022. Home break-ins, porch package thefts, and car burglaries have ticked up along the corridors near Poplar Avenue and in the neighborhoods between Quince and Walnut Grove. The same pattern is visible in Cordova, where subdivisions that were built in the early 2000s boom are aging into a period where the original homeowners are either selling or aging in place, and the community infrastructure, including security, needs updating.
In Germantown and Collierville, the picture is different. Crime rates there remain far below Memphis city limits. The demand from those communities isn’t driven by local incidents so much as anxiety about what’s happening ten miles to the west. When a kindergarten teacher gets kidnapped while jogging near the U of M campus, people in Germantown notice. They think about the nights their teenage daughter goes running on the Wolf River Greenway. They think about the Amazon packages sitting on the porch. And some of them call a security company.
Who’s Getting the Calls
The companies benefiting from this surge fall into three tiers, and each is experiencing the demand differently.
National firms like Allied Universal and Securitas have the infrastructure to scale. They can pull officers from commercial contracts, shift schedules, and staff new residential patrol routes within weeks. Allied Universal, the largest security company in the United States, already has a significant Memphis operation. Their residential division has been growing nationally, and Memphis is now one of their fastest-moving markets for new patrol contracts. GardaWorld, a Canadian-owned firm with a growing Tennessee presence, is also fielding increased residential inquiries in the Memphis metro.
The advantage of a national firm is capacity. If an HOA in East Memphis wants three patrol visits per night starting next week, Allied can probably make it happen. The trade-off is cost. National firms charge premium rates, and their contracts often come with minimum terms and setup fees that can run into five figures for annual agreements.
Regional and mid-size firms are in a different position. Phelps Security, which has been a Memphis institution since 1960, is exactly the kind of company that HOAs and neighborhood associations have historically turned to. Family-owned, locally operated out of their Park Avenue office, with a reputation built over six decades. They know Memphis neighborhoods in a way that a national company’s regional manager might not. The limitation is the same one every mid-size firm faces right now: hiring. Finding licensed security officers in Memphis is hard. Finding good ones willing to work overnight residential patrol shifts is harder.
Smaller local firms round out the market. These range from one-person operations running a single patrol car to companies with 10-15 officers covering a few neighborhoods. They tend to offer the most competitive pricing, and for an individual homeowner or a small neighborhood group, a local operator might be the only affordable option. The risk is reliability. A small firm that loses two officers to better-paying jobs can suddenly fail to cover its routes.
What Neighborhoods Are Actually Doing
The response varies wildly depending on the neighborhood’s existing infrastructure.
Chickasaw Gardens and Central Gardens have had private security for years. Both are established, wealthy neighborhoods with active associations that collect dues and manage contracts. For them, the post-Fletcher conversation isn’t about whether to hire security. It’s about whether to increase patrol frequency or extend hours. Central Gardens has been discussing adding a second vehicle for overnight coverage, according to a board member I spoke with who asked not to be named.
Harbor Town on Mud Island is an interesting case. The planned community has its own management company and a security presence that’s been part of the development since it was built. But Harbor Town residents have been vocal on neighborhood forums about wanting increased patrols on the pedestrian paths along the river, particularly after dark.
High Point Terrace in East Memphis held a neighborhood meeting on September 12 that drew over 60 residents, roughly triple the typical attendance. The agenda was security. The association discussed contracting with a patrol firm for the first time. Cost estimates ranged from $2,000 to $4,500 per month depending on frequency and hours, and the association is now surveying residents about willingness to increase annual dues to cover it.
Cordova subdivisions face a messier situation. Many Cordova neighborhoods don’t have active HOAs, or their HOAs are underfunded and voluntary. Organizing a security contract requires someone to collect money from neighbors, negotiate with a company, and manage the ongoing relationship. In established subdivisions with engaged residents, this happens. In neighborhoods where half the homes are rentals and the other half are occupied by people who work two jobs, it doesn’t.
I talked to a Cordova homeowner on Timbercreek Drive who said she and four neighbors pooled money to pay for a private patrol car to drive through their cul-de-sac three times a night. Total cost split five ways: about $80 per household per month. She found the company through a Facebook recommendation. “It’s not ideal,” she said. “But I have two kids and our street had three car break-ins in August. I’ll pay $80.”
The Hiring Problem Nobody’s Solved
Every security company I talked to for this story mentioned the same constraint: staffing.
Tennessee requires security officers to register with the state through TDCI’s Private Protective Services division. Armed officers need additional training and licensing. Background checks, drug screenings, and the 48-hour training minimum all take time. A company that gets ten new patrol contracts this month can’t fill them next week. The pipeline from “new hire” to “licensed officer on patrol” takes 3-6 weeks minimum, and that’s if the applicant passes everything on the first try.
The labor market makes this worse. A security officer in Memphis typically earns $12-16 per hour for unarmed work, $16-22 for armed. These rates compete directly with Amazon’s Olive Branch distribution center ($15/hour starting), FedEx’s Memphis hub (similar range), and a dozen other warehouse and logistics employers who don’t require you to work overnight shifts in a patrol car.
Several company owners told me they’re raising wages to attract and retain officers. One firm in East Memphis bumped starting pay by $2/hour in August and still can’t fill all its open positions. The math is simple: if a security company can’t hire enough officers, it can’t take on new residential contracts, no matter how many people are calling.
Neighborhood Watch: The Free Alternative
For neighborhoods that can’t afford or organize a private patrol contract, neighborhood watch programs remain the most accessible option. The Memphis Police Department runs a formal Neighborhood Watch program through its community outreach division. Signing up is free. MPD provides signage, training materials, and an initial orientation.
The reality, though, is that most neighborhood watch programs depend on volunteers, and volunteers burn out. The initial enthusiasm that follows a high-profile crime tends to fade after a few months. By January, the WhatsApp group that had 40 active members in September typically has eight people still posting.
That said, the neighborhoods with the strongest watch programs in Memphis tend to be the ones where crime stays lowest. East Memphis Neighbors, a loosely organized group that covers several subdivisions along Poplar, has been active for years and credits its watch network with helping MPD solve multiple property crime cases through surveillance camera footage sharing.
The combination approach may be what most Memphis neighborhoods end up with: a watch program for community awareness and camera sharing, paired with a private patrol contract for the physical deterrent of a marked car driving through at 2 a.m.
This Isn’t Going Back to Normal
The security companies I spoke with are planning for sustained demand, not a temporary spike. Phelps Security told me they’re interviewing candidates for six new positions. Allied Universal is running recruitment ads on Memphis job boards specifically for residential patrol officers. These aren’t companies reacting to a news cycle. They’re staffing for what they expect the market to look like six months from now.
And they’re probably right. The factors driving residential security demand in Memphis existed before Eliza Fletcher and will persist long after the national cameras leave. High crime rates, police understaffing, and a growing sense among residents that public safety alone isn’t enough: these conditions don’t reverse quickly.
The homeowner on Timbercreek Drive who’s splitting patrol costs with her neighbors said something that stuck with me. “I grew up here. My parents never locked the front door. I have a Ring camera, a deadbolt, motion lights, and now a patrol car. And I still check the windows before bed.” She paused. “That’s just Memphis now.”
Maybe it doesn’t have to be. But for the foreseeable future, the phones at every security company in this city are going to keep ringing.