Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) is the police department of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States, which includes the City of Charlotte. With 1,817 officers and 525 civilian staff as of 2020, covering an area of with a population of nearly 900,000, it is the largest police department between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia. The CMPD is by statute "county police" in that it has jurisdiction anywhere in Mecklenburg County. The unique status of this situation makes the CMPD "metro" police. History The CMPD was formed in 1993 with the merger of the former Charlotte City Police Department and the Mecklenburg County Rural Police Department. Mecklenburg and neighboring Gaston County were the two counties out of the state's 100 counties to have county police in addition to the sheriff's offices. County police perform law enforcement tasks in the county with police powers anywhere in the county just like the sheriff, but the sheriff primarily handled the courts and jails. The North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation combining the two agencies. In 2013, press reports indicated that the Citizens Review Board had ruled against citizens complaining of police misconduct in every case brought before the panel in its fourteen-year history.