CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More than a year after a Charlotte teacher was mistakenly arrested by officers, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is now implementing some changes recommended by the city's Citizens Review Board.
CMPD released documents on Oct. 7 related to the detainment of Jasmine Horne. One of the documents included a response to recommendations from the board made in the wake of her wrongful arrest in June 2021. The department shared a memo from city manager Marcus D. Jones to the board, the mayor's office, and the city council about a closed-session meeting held in May 2022 where the board outlined its recommendations.
Horne first shared her experience with WCNC Charlotte reporter Briana Harper more than a week after CMPD placed her under arrest just outside of her home. On June 14 of that year, Horne had returned to her west Charlotte home but was surrounded by several police cars as she got out of her car.
Officers at her home realized they had the wrong person minutes after placing her in handcuffs and into a squad car; they then told her they had mistaken her for a suspect who had a similar name. Horne, who is a teacher with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, told Harper, "At that point, the damage was done and I was already traumatized." She filed a complaint with CMPD's Internal Affairs Bureau.
The department said a CMPD license plate reader associated Horne's car with their intended suspect because the system had been given the wrong name.
The correct suspect was taken into custody two days after the incident.
Horne's complaint would eventually be considered by the Citizen's Review Board. In 2022, the board held votes that resulted in outcomes favoring Horne. In April of that year, the board voted unanimously in her favor. A vote the next month went 8-2, where the board said CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings or a designee "erred" in exonerating the officers who detained her.
The board acts as an advisory committee and holds no authority to directly implement changes. Rather, it produces reports and recommendations for city officials.
In a September response to the Citizen's Review Board, CMPD disagreed with further disciplinary action and with changing the status of both officers involved from "exonerated" to "sustained. The department said other actions were being taken along with the implementation of two other recommendations. CMPD said since Horne's wrongful arrest, Jennings implemented the Strategic Policy Unit to continually review department policies and research best practices.
Jennings is also considering hiring an outside consultant to review the department's communication processes and how information is shared in high-stress scenarios. When the board recommended a more flexible approach when opening an Internal Affairs file, the department said it would immediately formalize a policy to include an initial Internal Affairs chain of command review of all complaint allegations.
CMPD also responded to a board recommendation to allow citizen complainants to be invited to some chain of command hearings to address the panel and answer questions. CMPD said it would provide complainants a chance to address a review board, but limit the scope solely to an impact statement. The department cited personnel privacy laws and possible impacts on pending criminal investigations or civil lawsuits.
Beyond the recommendations, CMPD also outlined the additional actions the department would improve on:
- Obtain positive identification of the accused before entering details into a license plate recognition system
- Verify entries from license plater readers more frequently
- Enhance process awareness and develop more training
- Have an outside agency review best practices pertaining to license plate readers and how information is shared internally.
The memo from city manager Marcus Jones' said he found Jennings had reasonably disciplined the officers involved but agreed with the board that steps needed to be taken "to improve the internal communications and processes" involved in such cases. Jones also said CMPD was making additional changes beyond the board's recommendations to address issues tied to the processes the board looked into.
"I struggled with this case because though the officer’s actions were within CMPD’s policies and procedures, Ms. Horne’s experience was a traumatic one. Just as I understand and respect the perspective of the officers who made the arrest, I also understand and respect the perspective of Ms. Horne. She had done nothing wrong and yet was arrested at gunpoint and detained," another section of his memo reads.