CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The NAACP of Charlotte Mecklenburg is calling for the release of the names of the CMPD officers involved in a racist group text. Three officers have resigned and three others have been recommended for termination. “We need to know who these officers are,” Reverend Corine M ack from NAACP of Charlotte Mecklenburg said. “They need to be embarrassed and shamed because it was shameful what they did. We wanna know who they are.” CMPD Chief Estella Patterson says she can’t release the names of the officers because of employment privacy laws. She did confirm four of the six officers involved graduated from the 2024 recruit class, which was one of the largest group of new officers since 2010. “I know that there was a big push to get as many officers on the ground as possible, I get that,” Rev. Mack said. “But clearly we know we can’t rush to get any officers on the ground anymore.” Chief Patterson says the group chat goes back several years with text messages showing bias toward race, gender and religion. There was reportedly a competition to see who could pull over the most Black drivers. The Chief says an internal affairs investigation revealed no evidence that the bias impacted any interactions. “An internal investigation may not be as in depth as the FBI would be, which is why we’re calling for the FBI to do the investigation. We need to have an external investigation,” Rev. Mack said. Chief Patterson asked the FBI to investigate whether any civil rights were violated. Western District US Attorney Russ Ferguson says investigators will comb through text messages and interview witnesses to see if any officers took action on their bias. “So you really have to cross that line and taking action based on a racist action and then you have to willfully know you’re doing it, which is one of the highest standards we deal with at the federal level, but we’ll certainly be looking for it,” Attorney Ferguson said. NAACP wants to see the state de-certify the officers so they don’t carry a badge again. “We don’t want anyone to leave Charlotte and go to Union County or go to Gaston County or go to any other county and do the same kind of foolery,” Rev. Mack said. “We don’t want them going to another state altogether and do the same foolery cause further harm.” There’s an AI generated graphic circulating claiming to name the officers. We reached out to CMPD about it and they confirmed those are not the officers involved in the racist thread ...read more read less