10/15/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/1FC9En8b2W/
Charlotte police officers kept a group text where they used the n word while talking about using force and firing their guns at Black residents, and where they competed over who could pull over the most Black drivers. That’s according to multiple anonymous sources who spoke to WBTV in Charlotte, and if it holds up, this isn’t a few bad apples. It’s a scoreboard.
How it came out matters. No one inside the department raised the alarm. The State Bureau of Investigation was looking into Officer Seth Elliott, who was arrested in July and charged with illegally accessing a government computer. According to search warrants reported by WSOC TV, Elliott admitted he ran an undercover officer’s license plate through the Flock camera network and a state database as a favor for a college friend who turned out to be the target of a drug investigation. When investigators downloaded Elliott’s phone and handed the data to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, WBTV reports, the thread was sitting right there.
Since then, more than half a dozen officers from the North Tryon, Freedom and University City divisions have either quit or been recommended for termination after an internal review board met last week, according to WBTV. The department answered with a statement about integrity, accountability and transparency. Elliott didn’t respond when WBTV reached out.
Think about what this means for people in Charlotte. Every traffic stop on that tally was a real person running late for work, picking up their kids, or just driving while Black. Every report and every use of force tied to these officers now deserves a hard second look. And the Flock piece shouldn’t get lost. Supporters pitch these camera networks as smart crime fighting tools, but a surveillance system is only as trustworthy as the people holding the login, and here the people holding it allegedly treated it like a personal favor machine.
And kinda insane that this all came out because a cop was illegally using a flock camera which led to them seeing what was on an officer's phone. Charlotte residents deserve an independent review of the cases these officers touched, not just a press release. Firing people after the fact is the bare minimum. Finding out how a culture like this grew inside the department, and who looked away, is the real work. But then again, this might be the least surprising news story of the day unfortunately.
