On May 12, 2022, the Charlotte Citizen Review Board ruled against CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings disagreeing with his decision not to punish officers. See the below article for more and our reply.
On Saturday, March 19th, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers responded to several reported fights that occurred within a large crowd. While maintaining crowd control efforts, Tyler Drew, a convicted felon, retrieved a rifle from a nearby vehicle and proceeded to shoot at officers. Because of the heroic actions of these officers, they were able to tackle Drew and take him into custody safely and without discharging their service weapons. Drew was subsequently charged with
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Six (6) counts of AWDW On Governmental Official
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Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
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Resisting a public officer
Less than 24-hours later, Drew was out of jail. A magistrate set Drew's bond at $67,000 for all of the offenses, which allowed him to easily get out of jail. We could easily be planning another police officer's funeral and this article received little attention that seemed to have faded as the days after went by. It was not until our Lodge realized Drew was released after less than a day that we took action. We made the following Press Release: (tap/click image to view document)
Because of our Press Release pushing back against the poor judicial policies in Mecklenburg County, there has been much more attention brought to this issue. Countless media partners have since run stories on our statement, generating a much different response from the community.
On December 9th, 2021, a formal complaint was sent to Mecklenburg County Council, NC State Bureau of Investigations, and the Department of Health & Human Services. On December 14, 2021, this complaint was also sent to the American Correctional Association. FOP Members within the MCSO informed us of unsafe conditions within Mecklenburg County's Jail Central facility. As a result of our investigation, the complaint to the left was sent seeking an independent internal investigation to be conducted as well as the ACA review its accreditation rating. As of this posting, we are awaiting a formal response from all agencies involved.
A parallel investigation was conducted by WCNC Charlotte Investigative Reporter Nate Morabito. His article can be found below along with an in-depth interview with MCSO Sheriff Garry McFadden. Tap each image to view attachments.
"It's a slave mentality" - Sheriff Garry McFadden
Additional Reporting On The Crisis w/in the Jail
Full length video between CMPD Major Butler and WBTV's Nick Ochsner
On February 15th, 2021, WBTV Investigative Reporter Nick Ochsner did a story indicating that CMPD Officers stop and arrest a disproportionate number of black people. His story omitted context which failed to tell the full story. Our lodge made a statement via our Facebook page. Our response to the news article, along with the actual article and the full-length interview with CMPD Major Butler follows:
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 9 (FOP) would like to clarify information released within an investigative report published by WBTV and Investigative Reporter Nick Ochsner. We believe the investigative report lacks sufficient context that tells the full story and properly informs the community.
While we understand the report’s focus is on Westover and Metro Divisions' Crime Reduction Units (CRUs), the WBTV report implies that CMPD officers are specifically targeting minorities. This false representation of police conduct is misleading and only serves to further disenfranchise the community from law enforcement.
Additional context missing from the WBTV report includes, but is not limited to, the following:
-The report fails to mention the population demographics of Metro and Westover Divisions, which are predominantly minority communities (84% and 55% Black/Hispanic/Latino for Metro and Westover Division, respectively).
-CRUs represent only a small section of an entire patrol division. Patrol officers handle a wide range of calls, while CRU officers respond only to specific crime priorities. WBTV should clearly state that their numbers do not represent the entirety of Westover or Metro Divisions as a whole.
-CRUs focus on specific areas (i.e., roads or corridors) with higher crime rates or where citizens have requested extra police patrols. This micro-demographic focus leads to the sensationalized numbers referenced in the report.
-The data gathered for this report is based on only 11 officers assigned to Westover and Metro Division CRUs. These two divisions have a total of 112 patrol officers and additional officers assigned to specialized assignments.
-CRU focus areas are determined by criminal activity data compiled from calls of service (i.e., 911 calls), demographics are not a consideration in determining where CRUs need to patrol. However, the data does indicate that our communities of color are disproportionally affected by violent crime.
-A significant percentage of officer-initiated traffic stops have led to the arrest of escaped prisoners, kidnappers, attempted murders, and drug traffickers. An officer's job is to actively police and identify suspicious activity based on compliance with the law.
For the full story, we have uploaded the interview between CMPD Major Butler and Mr. Ochsner in its entirety to our Facebook page. The community and the media are quick to hold our law enforcement officers to the highest standard when carrying out their professional duties. With regard to the unbiased reporting of the facts, it is time for journalists to be held to that same standard.
The FOP Lodge #9 is pushing for priority COVID vaccinations for law enforcement officers.
On November 9th, 2020, the following press release was made regarding the Community Input Group's suggestion that the Charlotte Citizens Review Board be given subpoena power.
The following letter was sent to CMPD Chief Jennings on 12/14/2020 to advocate for morale-related improvements. (tap to open)
