Charlottesville’s First Black Woman Police Chief Fired

However, not long after Brackney was sworn in, she was already catching a glimpse of the challenges she was to encounter in the upcoming years. In her first few days, the new police chief says that she was approached in the hall by a commander who told her:

“I voted Republican, and I don’t drink any f—-ing pumpkin lattes.”

Brackney realized that the police department operated with a toxic insular culture that promoted an “us versus them” mentality as the relationship between the public and the government remained fractured after 2017. She immediately got to work on rectifying this issue.

Ultimately, the department was left with a third of its positions opened after many officers had been fired or willingly resigned. Boyles fired RaShall Brackney on September 1st of last year, and the former police chief is now suing for both gender and race based discrimination.