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QUESTIONS RAISED OVER RACE CLASSIFICATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA ARREST RECORDS Mecklenburg County, NC, is facing questions after public arrest records showed multiple Black arrestees classified as “Race: W” (White) while their ethnicity was listed as “AFR.” The records appear in the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s public database, which tracks race and ethnicity separately. Because county arrest statistics can also be broken down by race, inaccurate classifications could potentially affect the reported numbers. However, claims that officials intentionally changed Black arrestees to White specifically to inflate white crime statistics have not yet been proven. The records demonstrate apparent classification discrepancies; they do not, by themselves, establish why they occurred. See less