Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s new police chief starts job with $285,000 salary

Estella Patterson, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s newest police chief, took the helm of the department Monday with a sizable pay hike.

Patterson, the department’s first female chief, will make an annual salary of $285,000. That is nearly $5,000 more than previous chief Johnny Jennings received and $52,000 more than she was making as Raleigh police chief in 2024.

The city would not provide any other details of Patterson’s arrangement with the city. The Charlotte Observer requested Patterson’s contract on Nov. 3. Almost a month later, the city had not provided it and the Observer asked for it again on Monday. That afternoon, the city provided Patterson’s salary and said Patterson does not have a signed contract. The city did not immediately explain further or respond to an Observer request about any other compensation Patterson might receive.

Patterson joined CMPD in 1996 as a recruit and spent 25 years with the department.

In a November press conference, Patterson said filling officer vacancies and hiring more officers were among her top priorities.

“We will seek the best and the brightest to fill our ranks,” Patterson said at the time. “When we get to zero vacancies, Mr. Manager, I’m going to come up to you and to council, and I’m going to ask for more officers so that we can better serve this community.”

Last month, a couple of weeks before Patterson was named chief, the city of Charlotte settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with Patterson’s husband, Lance Patterson. In the lawsuit, Patterson alleged that former fire chief Jon Hannan had discriminated against Black and female employees.

The city has refused to release the settlement amount, the Charlotte Observer reported. WBT’s Brett Jensen on Monday reported that the city settled with Lance Patterson for $99,999, one dollar less than would require City Council approval.

During her tenure in Raleigh, she helped drop the police department’s vacancy rate from 150 to 40 and achieved a 100 percent homicide clearance rate, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

Patterson takes over from Jennings, who led the department for five years. Jennings took over the department in 2020, during a national racial reckoning, and had a fair share of controversy.

The most notable involved a secret $305,000 settlement from the Charlotte City Council made in an attempt to avoid a lawsuit from Jennings over comments made by former council member Tariq Bokhari. Jennings announced his retirement from the department shortly after.

Jennings’ annual salary was $280,334. His last day with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department is Jan. 1 2026.

Observer reporter Jeff A. Chamer contributed to this story.

This story was originally published December 1, 2025 at 5:16 PM.