Former Raleigh police chief to become first female chief in Charlotte
Estella Patterson, the former chief of the Raleigh Police Department, will take over as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police chief.
Patterson, who started her career at CMPD in 1996 and worked at the department for 25 years, will be the department’s first female chief.
Her tenure as CMPD chief will begin Dec. 1.
The decision by City Manager Marcus Jones to hire her was announced by the CMPD account on social media site X and in a press release Friday.
“Chief Patterson’s deep experience with CMPD in addition to her recent experience leading the Raleigh Police Department made her an ideal candidate to continue CMPD’s successes but also bring new ideas to further the agency’s growth,” Jones said in the press release.
Patterson was Raleigh’s chief of police from August 2021 to March 2025. She will hold an introductory press conference Monday at 11:30 a.m. at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center.
During her tenure, she helped drop the department’s vacancy rate from 150 to 40 in three years, created the Raleigh Police Foundation (which raised $4 million in two years to fund projects the helped improve employee morale), and achieved a 100 percent homicide clearance rate in 2024, the press release said.
Raleigh saw an overall drop in crime during her tenure.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to return to Charlotte to serve the community and lead CMPD into its next chapter,” Patterson, a former CMPD deputy chief, said. “Reducing violent crime and disorder, enhancing community engagement, and increasing employee morale and wellness are among my top priorities. I look forward to working collaboratively with law enforcement partners and community stakeholders to make Charlotte one of the safest cities in the nation.”
At CMPD, Patterson was a patrol officer, spent time at the police academy in recruiting and training, and worked in internal affairs before becoming deputy chief. She led administrative services and the patrol services group as deputy chief.
Patterson is also listed online as a senior consultant at Developmental Associates in Chapel Hill. The company works with companies, nonprofit organizations, and governmental bodies on things like recruitment and employee training, according to its website.
Patterson’s challenges in Raleigh
The News & Observer has reported that Patterson oversaw several challenges while leading the Raleigh department, including an October 2022 mass shooting that left five people dead and others injured. One of the five people killed was an off-duty police officer, and two people, including another officer, were injured in the northeast Raleigh shooting.
Patterson was named, along with Raleigh’s city manager and five officers, in a $25 million lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died during an arrest. The man, Darryl Williams, was stunned by Raleigh police officers during a stop in January 2023.
Officers said Williams was stunned three times with a stun gun, while the family alleged it was six. Williams told police he couldn’t breathe and that he had a heart condition. He fell unconscious and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. A federal judge removed Patterson and Raleigh’s city manager from the lawsuit in March, according to The Carolina Journal.
Patterson declined an interview with The News & Observer in May 2024 for a story about police misconduct settlements dating back to 2012. She said she could not “discuss specific cases,” but said she took all allegations seriously in a written statement to the newspaper.
The article said the department had paid $4.3 million in settlements to 47 people, families and estates since 2012 for cases involving police use of excessive force and other unconstitutional acts.
And while Patterson oversaw improvement in vacancies at the department, she also faced calls to increase police salaries by 15% in April last year.
Police organization, NAACP react to new chief
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police said Patterson was mentioned repeatedly in a survey as the top choice for new chief by members of the union.
“We wholeheartedly support Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones’ decision and are looking forward to working with Chief Patterson on matters important to our members,” the FOP said Friday on Facebook.
The Rev. Corine Mack, president of the NAACP Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch, said in a phone interview with The Charlotte Observer that Patterson’s hiring was not only historic, but overdue.
“I think it’s about time that Charlotte-Mecklenburg does what so many other cities have done: put a Black woman in leadership in policing,” Mack said. “So that we can begin to look at what consistency looks like, what collaboration looks like, and what compassion and care and everything looks like.”
Mack said she was part of a hiring committee that interviewed Patterson and three other candidates for the department’s top job. She said Patterson was the clear standout for her because of her vision and goals for CMPD.
District Attorney Spencer Merriweather’s office congratulated Patterson in a social media post.
“Across three decades, Chief Patterson has been a thoughtful leader in law enforcement and a steadfast community partner,” the district attorney’s post said. “We applaud Chief Jennings for all the Department accomplished during his distinguished tenure as Chief, and we look forward to great things ahead under Chief Patterson’s leadership.”
Career of outgoing Charlotte chief
Chief Johnny Jennings has kept a low profile following a scandal earlier this year in which the City Council, in secret, agreed to pay him $305,000 after he threatened to sue the city because he was upset that a member of the City Council had led calls for him to resign. His annual salary is $280,334.
Jennings, a Tennessee native, was sworn in as chief on July 1, 2020. He first started at CMPD in 1992, climbing up in the agency before being promoted to deputy chief in 2016.
Four years later, Jennings was sworn in as chief as the country was experiencing nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Jennings grabbed headlines when he was photographed kneeling alongside protesters in Charlotte, with his fist raised in the air. Jennings said it was in solidarity with the protesters, which was controversial with some officers.
He would go on to oversee the department through high profile events that included the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on Aug. 22, as well as the shooting of eight officers and deaths of four of them in east Charlotte last year. The April 29 shooting at Galway Drive was the deadliest day for police in North Carolina’s history.
During his tenure, CMPD, like other departments in the U.S., has struggled to recruit and retain police, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. Crime has fallen overall since Jennings became chief.
As chief, Jennings changed policies in an effort to rebuild trust in the community between officers and residents. Jennings had said he wanted officers to have a Chick-fil-A style approach to customer service.
CMPD has said the 2021 trainings led to a 24% decrease in use of force incidents, a 61% decrease in external complaints, a 39% decrease in internal complaints and a 43% decline in police shooting people.
Jennings also tried to prevent officers from wearing a vest known as an “outer carrier” vest because he didn’t approve of their militarized look said those vests didn’t add additional protection. But following pressure from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police and former District 6 City Council member Tariq Bokhari, Jennings reversed course in August 2024. Officers were allowed to request them.
During the controversy, Jennings and Bokhari exchanged text messages about the vests in which Bokhari threatened to “cripple” Jennings’s legacy.
Jennings would go on to threaten to file a lawsuit against the city, alleging Bokhari made Jennings feel “he was unfairly targeted and suffered reputational damage.”
Instead, Jennings opted to sign the payout agreement with the city in a closed session, resulting in a $305,000 “separation agreement.” For weeks, Jennings and city leaders refused to disclose the dollar amount.
Jennings will retire from CMPD on Jan. 1, 2026.
This story was originally published October 31, 2025 at 11:23 AM.
