Key Takeaways
- Chief Estella Patterson confirmed that three Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department members stepped down, while three others could soon face termination.
- CMPD reviewed body-worn footage, traffic stops, arrest records and external complaints as part of its internal investigation but said it found no evidence of complaints tied to the officers.
- Patterson requested federal review of possible civil rights violations and said CMPD will pursue revocation of the officers’ North Carolina law enforcement certifications.
Three Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers have resigned following an internal investigation into alleged racist text messages targeting Black residents, Chief Estella Patterson revealed on Thursday (Oct. 15).
During the police department’s latest public safety briefing, Patterson opened by addressing the elephant in the room, which she described as “allegations of misconduct involving several members of CMPD.” She went on to confirm that three officers had already left the force, while she hopes to soon be calling the other three “former employees.”
"The allegations against them are serious, they're deeply troubling, and frankly, I'm disappointed that we're even having to talk about this," Patterson told reporters. "As a Black woman who began my career here in this very department, it's especially painful and disheartening to hear concerns from our community about racism coming from within the ranks of this organization."
"I have not read all the messages," she continued. "I can share with you that the biases show racial [and] sexual [prejudices]. They also show religious biases... My personal reaction is one of disgust, anger, frustration."
While, for legal reasons, Patterson couldn’t disclose everything to the public, she did note that the three officers in question were hired before her tenure as chief. Even so, the veteran law enforcement official stressed that it in no way diminishes her “responsibility or commitment” to making sure the alleged misconduct doesn’t become a “systemic problem.”
CMPD chief Estella Patterson calls for federal investigation into officers’ alleged misconduct
Later in the briefing, Patterson emphasized that the final decision on the officers’ employment rests with the Civil Service Board, which has “the sole authority” to terminate sworn members of the department. “Because this case is of a personnel matter, I cannot, by law, disclose specific information related to the case or the text messages and such,” she added. “As soon as we learned of this — of the involved officers — we immediately conducted audits of their body-worn footage, we reviewed their traffic stops [and] traffic stop data, we looked at their arrest records, and we looked to see if any of those officers had external complaints.”
Despite the internal investigation having “not found any evidence” of complaints, Patterson shared that she asked federal authorities to look into possible civil rights violations. In the meantime, the UNC Charlotte alum said the department will pursue revoking the aforementioned officers’ law enforcement certifications to prevent them from working anywhere else in North Carolina. “I hope they will not be an officer anywhere in this country,” she added.
What do we know about the alleged racist texts involving CMPD officers?
Since the investigation centers on allegations of employee misconduct, CMPD has not publicly identified the officers — although Patterson revealed that four belonged to the same class of 2024 — nor has the department shared many details about the texts themselves. According to local news station WCNC, however, one of the officers supposedly sent a message earlier this year acknowledging that their “texts sound like a clan rally.”
Meanwhile, an anonymous source told WBTV that one of the text threads “included a contest over who could pull over the most Black drivers." They also alleged that officers repeatedly used the N-word while discussing "using force and firing on Black residents."