It’s been seven days since protests over George Floyd’s killing reached Memphis. I’ve spent most of that week on the streets downtown, on the phone with security company owners, and sorting through conflicting reports about what happened, where, and to whom.
Here’s what I can tell you as of this morning, June 4.
Memphis imposed a curfew on Monday, June 1. From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., nobody is supposed to be on the streets without a valid reason. Governor Lee has extended it through June 8. National Guard troops are stationed at key points around the city. Plywood covers half the storefronts on Main Street. The air downtown smells faintly like smoke even when nothing’s burning.
The city hasn’t fallen apart. It hasn’t come through unscathed either.
The Numbers
The damage reports have been trickling in all week. By my count and what’s been confirmed through the Commercial Appeal and MPD briefings, roughly 10 businesses have been vandalized since protests began May 28. Three MPD patrol cars were damaged. In three separate incidents, officers were shot at.
Ten businesses. That’s the number people will argue about for months. Some will say it proves the protests were violent. Others will point out that thousands of people marched peacefully across multiple days, and ten businesses out of an entire city is a sign that Memphis mostly held together.
Both things are true at the same time.
Winfield’s Shoes
The vandalism that hit hardest, the one people in Memphis keep bringing up, was Winfield’s Shoes on North Main Street. It’s a Black-owned business. Has been for years. Somebody smashed the windows and ransacked the place.
I stood outside Winfield’s on Tuesday morning while the owner assessed the damage. He didn’t want to be interviewed on the record. I’ll respect that. What I can say is that the expression on his face told you everything. Here was a Black business owner who understood the rage behind the protests, who felt that rage himself, watching volunteers help sweep glass off his sidewalk.
That scene played out in different forms across downtown. A Walgreens got hit. Other small shops took damage. The common thread was randomness. The vandalism didn’t follow any logic or target any particular type of business. It was opportunistic. It happened in the gaps between organized marches and police lines, usually late at night, usually by people who weren’t part of the daytime protests.
The Protests Themselves
I want to separate two things because Memphis deserves that honesty.
The organized protests were overwhelmingly peaceful. Hundreds of people marched on Beale Street. Crowds gathered at 201 Poplar, where the county jail and courts sit, because that building represents everything protesters are angry about. There were signs, chanting, speeches, and tears. There was also tension. You could feel it in the air when police lines formed and demonstrators pressed forward.
Director Michael Rallings did something that surprised a lot of people. He walked with protesters. Physically joined the march at one point. Some praised him for it. Others called it performative. Regardless of where you land on that, the gesture mattered tactically. It de-escalated a moment that could have gone sideways.
MPD’s approach this week has been a mix of restraint and show of force. Officers in riot gear held lines around government buildings. Helicopters circled overhead at night. Tear gas was deployed at least once, though accounts vary about the circumstances. For the most part, MPD let the daytime protests happen without heavy intervention.
The nights were different.
After Dark
When the sun went down, the character of the crowds changed. The families and organized groups went home. Smaller clusters remained. Some genuine protesters, some people with different intentions. The vandalism, the car damage, the shots fired at officers. All of it happened after dark.
This is the window where private security became critical. And this is where the industry’s limits showed.
Private Security Under Pressure
Every security company owner I’ve spoken with this week used some version of the same word: overwhelmed.
The call volume has been staggering. Businesses that never had security contracts are begging for guards. Property management companies want 24-hour patrol coverage on buildings they previously checked once a night. Restaurants and shops in Midtown and Cooper-Young are requesting armed officers, even though they’re miles from where the protests centered.
One owner told me he’s fielding 30 to 40 calls a day. He can staff maybe a third of the requests. “I’m turning away business I would have killed for two months ago,” he said. “I don’t have the people.”
The staffing shortage that plagued the industry during COVID reopening hasn’t gotten better. It’s gotten worse. Guards are working double shifts. Some are pulling 16-hour days covering protest-related posts on top of their regular assignments. Fatigue is setting in. Mistakes are more likely when people are exhausted, and in an environment this charged, mistakes carry real consequences.
The Curfew Changes Everything
When Memphis announced the 10 p.m. curfew on June 1, it changed the operational picture for private security in ways that aren’t immediately obvious.
Guards posted at client sites after 10 p.m. need documentation proving they’re on duty. If MPD or National Guard personnel stop a security guard walking between buildings after curfew, that guard needs to be clearly identified: uniform, badge, written authorization from the client. Several companies scrambled Monday afternoon to print authorization letters for their night-shift staff.
One supervisor told me a guard was stopped by National Guard soldiers near Court Square on Monday night. “He had his uniform on, his license, everything. They still held him for 20 minutes while they verified with the client.” Twenty minutes doesn’t sound like much. When you’re the only guard covering a three-building circuit and you’re standing on a sidewalk arguing with soldiers, it feels longer.
The curfew also created a strange dynamic. After 10 p.m., the streets empty out except for law enforcement, National Guard, and private security. That means guards become hyper-visible. Anyone with bad intentions who’s still out at midnight can see the guard walking a patrol route from a block away. The usual anonymity of nighttime foot patrol vanishes.
Companies have adjusted by switching to vehicle patrol where possible, keeping guards inside client properties rather than walking external perimeters, and pairing guards at high-risk sites. That last measure costs double. Clients are paying it without complaint, for now.
The National Guard Factor
Seeing military vehicles on Union Avenue and soldiers in camouflage standing outside the Federal Building is jarring, even if you expected it. The National Guard deployment changed the security picture downtown substantially.
For private security, the Guard’s presence is mostly helpful. It means the streets aren’t empty after curfew. It means there’s a visible deterrent that no private company could match. Guards at downtown posts told me they feel safer knowing soldiers are a few blocks away.
The complication is communication. National Guard units aren’t plugged into the same channels as MPD, and MPD isn’t always coordinating with private security in real time. There’s a information gap between these three groups that nobody has fully bridged. A guard sees something suspicious, calls MPD dispatch, waits on hold, and meanwhile two National Guard Humvees roll past without stopping because they’re on a different route and a different radio frequency.
I’ve heard from at least three companies that they’ve started creating their own communication networks. Group text chains between guards, supervisors, and whoever they know at MPD. It’s improvised. It works better than nothing.
The Cost
Clients are paying premium rates right now, and nobody’s pushing back. Contract rates for armed guards in downtown Memphis have jumped 30 to 40 percent since May 28. One company told me they’re billing $35 an hour for armed officers on protest-related posts, up from $24 a week ago.
Overtime is eating into margins. Companies are paying guards time-and-a-half and sometimes double to cover the surge. The revenue looks good on paper. The profit margins are thinner than they appear.
Insurance is the wild card nobody wants to think about. If a guard is injured during protest-related duty, workers’ comp covers it. If a guard injures someone else, general liability comes into play. I spoke with one insurance broker who said he’s already fielded calls from security companies asking about coverage limits for civil unrest scenarios. His advice was blunt: “If you’re not sure you’re covered, pull your guards off the street until you are.”
What the Next Few Days Hold
The curfew runs through June 8. The National Guard will stay at least that long. Whether protests continue at their current intensity depends on factors nobody in Memphis controls: the criminal charges against the officers in Minneapolis, what happens in other cities, and the collective emotional temperature of a country that’s been locked down for three months and just watched a man die on camera.
Memphis security companies need to plan for this lasting through June, at minimum. The acute phase, the nightly worry about vandalism and confrontation, may ease as the curfew holds. The underlying demand for security services won’t fade as quickly. Businesses that boarded up their windows this week won’t take the plywood down until they’re confident the worst has passed. That confidence will take time.
I’ve covered the Memphis security industry for years. I’ve never seen it tested like this. COVID forced companies to reinvent their daily operations. The protests forced them to reckon with their role in a city that’s reckoning with itself.
The plywood will come down eventually. The National Guard will leave. The curfew will end. What stays is the memory of this week and whatever lessons the industry takes from it. Whether those lessons stick depends on the people running these companies and the guards doing the work.
I’ll keep reporting. Memphis keeps going. That’s what this city does.
Marcus Johnson covers the Memphis security industry for Memphis Security Insider.