Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police invited an outside review of the department’s use of license plate readers following the high-profile case of Jasmine Horne, a local teacher who was handcuffed at gunpoint in front of her house after she was mistaken for an attempted murder suspect.
On Monday night, officials released publicly a redacted version of policy recommendations from the Citizens Review Board, which had been sent to Chief Johnny Jennings last month.
After the CRB released its recommendations, CMPD said in a news release it will provide officers with more training for the license plate readers, verify entries more frequently, and invite an outside consultant to review department practices.
CMPD’s license plate reader system uses camera technology to track vehicles in various locations citywide. In June 2021, that technology led police to Horne — but officers had the wrong person.
Horne, a teacher with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, was detained after police mistook her for a suspect with the same last name and a similarly spelled first name. A stabbing victim gave police the name of the person who stabbed them, but police entered the wrong spelling into the license plate reader.
Officers tracked down what they thought was the suspect’s car using the license plate reader and confronted Horne at gunpoint in front of her home, and put her in handcuffs for around 15 minutes. The actual suspect, Jaselyn Horne, was taken into custody a short time later, according to CMPD
The department said it will now manually verify its license plate reader entries every 12 hours instead of every 24, ”to ensure information is current, accurate and consistent with the National Crime information Center,” according to the release.
Jennings created a strategic policy unit after this incident, the release said. This unit will conduct an “outside agency” review license plate reader practices. Jennings also said he is considering hiring an outside agency to review the department’s communication processes.
City Manager’s Response
CMPD acknowledges “mistakes were made” which led to Horne being arrested, Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones wrote in a memo to board members and the City Council. CMPD later apologized for these mistakes, he said.
The Citizens Review Board, in an 8-2 vote on May 12, found that Jennings erred in not disciplining officers. It’s just the third time the board has ruled against CMPD. The board has limited authority and can’t overrule the chief’s decision. The city manager can override Jennings’ decision but in this case he did not.
“Ms. Horne was due an apology and CMPD has apologized to her,” Jones wrote. “I also offer my apology to Ms. Horne. Ms. Horne and the community are also due a thorough review of this incident and a plan to address the issues that led to her mistaken arrest and a commitment to improve.”
Jones said he supports Jennings’ decision not to discipline the officers involved and he does agree with the CRB that the department’s processes must be reviewed.
“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,” Jones said. “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.
“I believe that the combination of the CRB recommendations and additional actions undertaken by CMPD to review and change related processes and procedures will help ensure that this rare incident doesn’t happen again, and our officers are put in the best position to fulfill their mission to our community,” Jones said.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 10:23 AM.
