Last Updated: Aug 10, 2026
Read Time: 4 mins
As an apartment crime lawyer Memphis, TN knows and trusts, I can tell you that in Tennessee, the law requires property owners to take reasonable measures to protect their tenants and guests from foreseeable criminal attacks. Many apartment managers and owners fail to do this, and in some cases, innocent people living in or visiting apartment complexes or communities are injured as a result.
What is a foreseeable crime?
Tennessee case law states that the degree of foreseeability needed to establish a duty by an apartment owner to protect against criminal acts will almost always require that prior instances of crime have occurred on or in the immediate vicinity of the property. Courts will consider the location, nature, and extent of previous criminal activities and their similarity, proximity, or other relationship to the crime that resulted in personal injuries to an innocent victim.
Assessing Crime at an Apartment Complex
So, what is a property owner or apartment manager in Memphis TN supposed to do? The owner or manager can start by assessing the level of crime within the apartment complex and surrounding neighborhood. How is management supposed to know about crime? Many apartment managers commute to work from some other neighborhood and don’t even live in the apartment complex they manage, so they are disconnected from the community. Even if a manager does live on site, the manager might claim he or she never observed any crime occurring, and thus had no reason to know security measures were necessary. Good enough? Not by a long shot. There are many tools available today for property owners and managers to use to assess crime as the first step in developing a reasonable security plan for an apartment community.
Reviewing and Monitoring Crime Levels
As an apartment crime lawyer Memphis, TN counts on, I regularly obtain the following information while representing victims of apartment violence and shootings, so we know that the same information is available to apartment owners and managers.
- CAP Index® Reports– According to the company’s website, CRIMECAST Reports are designed to identify the risk of personal and property crimes at a particular location.
- Crime Analysis Reports. In the City of Memphis, a property manager or owner can submit a Crime Analysis Search Request to the Memphis TN Police Department and receive a Crime Analysis Report. Information can be requested for a specific address, apartment complex, police district, or radius around an address. The Report generated identifies the number and types of crimes for the time period requested, the specific location of each crime, and the corresponding incident report numbers for each crime.
- Review Police Incident Reports. In Memphis, TN, an apartment manager can request copies of police reports in order to understand the types of crimes being committed on or near a property.
- Calls for Service. In Memphis, TN, a property owner or manager can request the calls for service made to a particular address or apartment complex.
- Statistics from Local Police Precinct. A property owner or manager can also visit the local precinct, discuss crime in the neighborhood, and request and obtain information concerning crime statistics for the area.
Are you the Victim of an Apartment Crime or Apartment Shooting? If so, call the apartment crime lawyer Memphis, TN knows and respects!
If you are the victim of a serious injury due to apartment crime, please call Patterson Bray today at 901-372-5003. We’ve helped others like you, and we can help YOU recover if apartment management failed to take reasonable measures to protect against foreseeable criminal attacks. Patterson Bray is an apartment crime lawyer Memphis, TN knows and trusts. We will meet or speak with you and discuss whether you might have a case at no charge. Let us get to work for you.
Here are the experienced Memphis apartment crime lawyers at our law firm who will work on your case:
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Reach out to Patterson Bray and an attorney will follow up with you soon.
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