Three CMPD officers resign over racist text thread

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Three Charlotte Mecklenburg Police officers have resigned and three others are recommended for termination after a racist text thread that Chief Estella Patterson says “goes back several years.”

“I can share with you that the biases show racial, sexual, they also show religious biases,” Chief Patterson said.

On Thursday, at a news conference that was supposed to focus on quarterly crime numbers, Chief Patterson instead started with the allegations of misconduct with six CMPD officers.

“We immediately conducted audits of their body worn footage. We reviewed their traffic stops, their traffic stop datas. We Looked at their arrest records and we looked to see if any of those officers had external complaints,” Chief Patterson said. “At this point, we have not found any evidence of this, but I have asked our federal partners to look at the possibility of civil rights violations.”

The text thread allegedly contains use of the “n word”, talk of firing guns at Black residents, and conversations about a competition to see which officer could pull over the most Black drivers.

The officers involved are of three different races. Four are from the same 2024 recruit class.
Patterson did not name them citing privacy laws and an active investigation.

NAACP Charlotte Mecklenburg Chapter President Corine Mack says the officers’ names should be public.

“I want someone else to look into their, their background because body-worn camera or their records, that’s a surface for me,” Rev. Mack said. “Have we spoken to the people who were arrested?”

Patterson says she is asking the FBI to review whether the officers violated anyone’s civil rights. She says she’s also asking the state to revoke the law enforcement certificates of the six officers involved in the text thread.

“So that they cannot be an officer anywhere in our state, and I hope that they will not be an officer anywhere in this country,” Chief Patterson said.

The three officers that have been recommended for termination will have a Civil Service Board hearing next month to give them a chance to appeal the chief’s recommendation.

Chief Patterson says the department is auditing body cameras and records looking for bias. She says they’re also taking a closer look at their hiring practices.