CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT

 

Charlotte, North Carolina, located in the southwestern region of the state in Mecklenburg County, experienced steady growth over time. Developing from just 1,500 citizens in 1861, Charlotte quickly grew to 9,000 by 1881 (Kiser et al. 1990) and continued growing for the next 150 years, including a particularly rapid growth period between 1980 and 2005. Much of the late twentieth-century population surge resulted from significant expansion of banking and financial industries, where Charlotte ranked second only to New York City. Local census counts indicated that the city population had doubled from an estimated 315,000 citizens in 1980 to 632,760 by 2005. The Mecklenburg County population also nearly doubled within that time frame, growing from an estimated 404,000 citizens in 1980 to 829,978 by 2005. As a result, the Charlotte Metropolitan Statistical Area housed more than 1.5 million citizens by 2005 (Charlotte Chamber of Commerce 2005).

Meanwhile, Charlotte law enforcement efforts slowly evolved from informal to transitional to formalized policing. Prior to 1816 citizen volunteers enforced the law, and in that year the town commissioner appointed a Town Watch to protect the streets, patrol businesses, and enforce local ordinances. Charlotte was soon divided into two wards (an early precursor to modern district systems). Each ward was assigned a captain of the watch who was responsible for assigning citizens to serve on patrol. In 1827, the city hired its first constable, and by 1850 the Town Guard included ten paid positions at a salary of fifteen dollars a month. Following the Civil War, North Carolina established a provisional government, which appointed Charlotte’s mayor as the first ”Intendant of Police,” although duties were shared with the Mecklenburg County sheriff who had primary law enforcement authority. Finally, on January 11, 1866, town commissioners formally created the Charlotte Police Department (CPD), adding eight officers to the payroll. On May 5, 1881, the CPD hired their first police chief through a political appointment by the town council. This appointment practice continued until 1970 when a city manager was hired (Kiser et al. 1990).

Consistent with Charlotte’s late twentieth-century population growth, the Charlotte Police Department also grew. By 1934, CPD had 91 employees on the payroll, including a surgeon and a dog catcher (Kiser et al. 1990). By 1980 the department (prior to a merger with the Mecklenburg County Police Department) had grown to 594 sworn officers and 152 civilian employees for a total of 746 full-time staff. The Mecklenburg County Police Department (not to be confused with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office) had about 160 sworn and civilian staff. In 1993, following years of planning, financial considerations, and political negotiations, the Charlotte Police Department merged with the Mecklenburg County Police Department, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) provided primary law enforcement services for the metropolitan area going forward. By 2002, CMPD had grown to 1,501 sworn officers and 501 civilians for a total of 2,002 employees, the largest local law enforcement agency in North Carolina (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2005).

The mission of CMPD is ”to build problem-solving partnerships with our citizens to prevent the next crime. Preventing the next crime is a lofty goal, worth striving to reach. And we believe that through the successes of these partnerships, the contributions of officers and citizens, crime can be reduced and the quality of life within our community can be improved” (http://www.charmeck.org).

In pursuing this mission, CMPD embraced the community-oriented and problem-oriented policing practices that evolved from the team policing of the 1970s (Goldstein 1990). CMPD was widely recognized as a national leader in community policing, problem solving, community partnerships, and crime prevention (National Institute of Justice 1999). From 1995 to 2005, CMPD received almost two dozen federal grants for more than $38 million from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to hire additional officers, develop an effective technology-based infrastructure, train officers in community policing, ensure officer and agency integrity, and engage the community in law enforcement planning and practices (Office of Community Oriented Policing Services 2005). While the effectiveness of community policing in reducing crime and fear remained an ongoing debate, studies suggested that COPS community policing hiring grants generated significant crime reductions in cities (like Charlotte) with populations of more than ten thousand (Zhao, Scheider, and Thurman 2002).

Despite their attempts at innovation, CMPD faces several future challenges. First, the growth of the Charlotte metropolitan area continues to present resource, geographical (CMPD has twenty-two facilities spread across the city and county), and criminal challenges for the department. Gang crime slowly emerged as a local concern and ”twenty-first century” crimes such as identity theft, cybercrimes, and terrorism threats required CMPD to continually reconsider and balance officer and civilian allocations, improve departmental training, and increase specialization within the agency. Further, new crimes require ongoing improvements in police technology, hiring of technology specialists (crime mapping experts or data analysts, for example), and increased operating budgets for technology implementation, maintenance, and information dissemination.

Second, Charlotte is home to an increasing numbers of Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, and African Americans. More than 28% of the county population is African American, although African Americans comprised only 13% of the U.S. population in the early twenty-first century. Increased diversity is vitally important for communities, but diversity requires that police officers learn new languages and cultures. Police departments must work to ensure diversity in recruitment, hiring, and promotional processes, and community members and leaders must work with police to maintain public trust in law enforcement.

Finally, like many large local police departments, CMPD continues to examine ways to enhance its reputation within the community and within law enforcement, reduce crime and disorder, maintain officer and organizational integrity, and enforce laws fairly and consistently. CMPD has publicly addressed potential concerns with racial profiling (Smith et al. 2004), use of force and excessive force (National Institute of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics 1999), academy recruits cheating on exams (Stephens 2004), deaths related to high-speed pursuits (North Carolina v. Lee Taylor Farrar 2002; Beshears, Moore, and Wellin 2003), and other such challenges. The future success of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department rests with their ability to adapt to new challenges, operate efficiently given increasing demands and limited resources, address emerging crime patterns and trends, and maintain positive police-community relationships.

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