The alert went out to volunteers at about 8 p.m. on a Friday: a woman hiding in a closet with her twin toddlers was on the phone to a community hotline unsure what to do as dozens of federal and local law enforcement officers converged outside, demanding entry.

Yuleiny Escobar, a volunteer for Vecindarios 901, which operates the hotline, hustled over to the woman’s home, located in the same heavily Latino Berclair neighborhood as her own.

A tow truck driver blocked the road leading to the house at the request of law enforcement, blaring the pro-police anthem, “Bad Boys.” By the time Escobar reached the home, a Border Patrol officer and a U.S. Marshal each held a toddler in one arm as their mother was placed inside an unmarked SUV. Holes in the home’s windows marked entry points for chemical agents that had been thrown inside to force the family out, neighbors told Escobar.

Escobar pulled out her phone and began recording.

“These are scenes people need to see, as a reflection of our state and our country right now,” Escobar said.

Thousands of Memphians now rely on the videos, photos and eyewitness reports by volunteers with Vencendarios 901 — V901 for short — to chronicle the activities of the Memphis Safe Task Force, the multi-agency law enforcement force launched Sept. 15 by President Donald Trump.

V901 was established as a rapid response network to report on Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities during the first Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. In Trump’s second term, the all-volunteer V901 has kicked into high gear.

V901 dispatchers answer calls while volunteers drive two-hour patrol shifts to confirm reported Task Force actions before they are sent out as text blasts and social media posts. The information serves both as a warning to avoid locations with a heavy law enforcement presence and an ongoing documentation of Task Force activity.

About 100 people a month have attended V901 volunteer training since the Task Force launched, Demster said. The group is diverse, but Demster said he has noticed more older white women and individuals motivated by their religious faith have turned out to help in recent months.

Most of the stops reported by V901 volunteers appear to be aimed at drivers in two of Memphis’ biggest Hispanic neighborhoods: Hickory Hill and Berclair, he said.

The Memphis Safe Task Force has made over 3,100 arrests, 1,900 of them for nonviolent offenses, and initiated more than 35,000 traffic stops since Oct. 1, according to a dashboard maintained by the city that has received community pushback for its lack of detail.

The data made public by the city and U.S. Marshals office, which spearheads the task force, does not include the locations of arrests or demographic data on individuals arrested. Task Force officials initially reported immigration arrest numbers but have since stopped providing that data.

In the absence of data, Demster said V901 volunteers said they have witnessed immigration arrests as a key priority.

“They may say this isn’t strictly an ICE operation, but when you flood the two largest Hispanic communities in the city, we see it’s an ICE operation under the false pretenses of we’re here to stop violent criminals,” he said.