Police Competition to Arrest More Blacks

I’d like to say I’m making this up; sadly, I’m not. Three Charlotte cops have resigned, and three more are facing termination, after a investigation into Flock revealed a text chain among officers littered with racist messages, religious and sexual bias, and even worse, a reported competition over who could arrest the most black people.

The discovery occurred when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer, Seth Elliott, was caught using Flock's database to out an undercover cop to his drug dealer friend. That incident sparked an investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

When questioned by the Bureau, the now-resigned Elliott admitted he ran the plate but denied knowing that it belonged to an undercover officer. He told agents that his friend had reached out to ask if Elliott could help identify a strange person hanging out around his father's business. Elliot did so as a favor, a violation of policy. Elliott was arrested in July and charged with " illegally accessing a government computer”, a Class 1 misdemeanor.

However, during its investigation into Elliott, data was downloaded from his phone and turned over to the police department. During a subsequent review, a racist text thread was discovered. ​According to sources, the group chat included "numerous uses of the 'n-word' related to previous use of force and discharging firearms at black residents.” Furthermore, they discovered a competition to see who could arrest the most black people.

One text supposedly written by a officer, stated, "Our texts sound like a clan rally." At a press conference, Police Chief, Estella Patterson, said an independent chain-of-command board unanimously voted for the officers' termination. Three have already resigned and the other three she "hopes to refer to as former employees."

Here is where I may disagree with the fallout. The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech, even if it is hateful, but not incendiary. If the only offense is what is written in the text, it comes down to moral code enforcement of police hires. On the other hand, if an officer participated in such a “competition”, that officer needs to be fired. Either way, each officer involved should willingly resign for ethical reasons due to credibility issues and moral behavior becoming of an officer.

It gets worse. Every case these officers touched could now be called into question. In Giglio v. United States (1972), the Supreme Court ruled prosecutors must disclose information that could undermine the credibility of a government witness or law enforcement officer. Mecklenburg County District Attorney, Spencer Merriweather, will have to examine the messages and determine whether their word as witnesses can still be trusted. This could lead to dropped cases and challenges to prior convictions. Cases in which the officers are presently involved will need halted.

With the intense scrutiny that Flock is receiving, and the officers who abuse the system being the major cause of that scrutiny, it’s interesting that officers fall prey rather than the predator. Flock is seemingly used far more for pursuing personal grudges and stalking exes or romantic interests, than for actual law enforcement.

Source used: Reason | Photo credit: Reason

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