CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More than half a dozen officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in Charlotte, N.C., have been recommended for termination or quit after a text thread with racist messages came to light during a different investigation, according to people familiar with the case.
The messages surfaced while the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was looking into a department officer over misuse of the Flock license plate camera network. During that probe, text messages and other data were downloaded from the officer’s phone and turned over to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
A further review of those messages showed officers in a text thread making derogatory statements about Black people. The department then launched its own internal investigation.
Last week, officers involved in the thread went before an internal affairs independent chain of command review board, and numerous officers were recommended for termination. The officers come from several divisions, including North Tryon, Freedom and University City.
The officers can still appeal to the Citizens Review Board, and the final decision on termination rests with the police chief. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is a consolidated city-county agency led by Chief Estella D. Patterson.
In an emailed statement, the department did not confirm or deny the details of the case. It said it will not tolerate any behavior that contradicts its core values or jeopardizes the trust it has built with the community, and that in her first 100 days in office the chief visited every unit within the department to communicate expectations on ethics.
