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Policy & Regulation

Charlotte police review arrest records after alleged racist texts found in Flock camera inquiry

Five North Carolina officers resigned and a sixth was suspended after alleged racist texts were found during a Flock camera misuse inquiry.

AI News Feed · 2026-10-20 23:46

The department released personnel files Monday identifying the officers after a public information request by local media. The five former officers were Mateo Juarez, Joseph Kelly, Tredan Maronic, Matthew Osborn and Alexander Larsen, all hired in 2023 or 2024, according to the CMPD. Patterson had cited them for termination. A sixth officer, Jeremiah Todman, hired in 2022, remains suspended pending the investigation and a civil service board review, the department said in a statement.

Patterson did not disclose the content of the texts. ABC News reported that they contained racist slurs and alleged use of the N-word. Charlotte outlet WSOC reported that one of the former officers was president of their recruit class and another received an employee of the month award earlier in the year; the outlet said one message likened the officers to a “clan rally,” an apparent reference to rallies held by the Ku Klux Klan.

A seventh officer, Seth Elliot, resigned in August after being alleged to have improperly viewed Flock camera data, the CMPD said. His resignation came days after his arrest by the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation for illegally accessing a government computer.

So far, none of the officers has been charged with criminal wrongdoing related to the text exchanges. ABC News said it was unclear whether any of them other than Elliot had retained an attorney, and reported that Elliot’s lawyer, George Laughrun, did not return a request for comment. The Guardian contacted the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police lodge that represents the department’s officers for comment.

At the news conference, Patterson, who is Black, said it was “especially painful and disheartening” to hear community concerns about racism within the department. She said the officers were hired before her tenure as chief but that did not lessen her responsibility or commitment to ensure the case was not a systemic problem. She said she intended to seek revocation of the officers’ state law licenses and had begun auditing body-worn camera footage to review officers’ interactions with the public.

The CMPD statement said the department remains committed to accountability and to providing access to public records in accordance with the law while respecting the integrity of ongoing investigations and potential legal proceedings. Patterson said the overwhelming majority of employees do exceptional work and that the department would not allow misconduct by a few to define the whole.