Charles Dennis Heartt was elected Chief of Police for Raleigh in May 1880, beginning work on May 15, 1880. Prior to his election, he was a local magistrate, serving as Chief Justice in January of 1880.  He had also been a Major in the Confederate Army, and was often referred to with that title.
Early in his career, as part of both his role as Police Chief and as quartermaster of the 1st Regiment of the North Carolina State Troops, he was involved in the transfer of 126 Confederate soldiers killed during the Civil War from Arlington Cemetery to Oakwood Cemetery.  Chief Heartt also contributes arrest statistics for Raleigh to the local papers, noting how many people had been cited for various offenses.   
Chief Heartt served for seventeen years, carrying the Raleigh Police Department through a number of changes.  As early as 1891, there was discussion about adding an Assistant Police Chief, as both Raleigh and the Police Department were growing, and there was concern about the workload, particularly in terms of clerical work.  There was also opposition to the idea, declaring that Heartt was more than capable of handling the work himself.  Chief Heartt himself recommended that two more officers be added to police the city at night, a suggestion which the Mayor agreed to readily. Chief Heartt was well-liked and respected in Raleigh, with the newspapers regularly printing anecdotes about his policing.  During the last years of his stint as Chief, he seemed to be plagued by health problems, which may ultimately have led to him not being re-elected in 1897 in favor of James Norwood.  Heartt stayed on as Assistant Chief Turnkey (night jailer), which many saw as a demotion and an insult to a man who had served the city for so long.  Heartt, however, seems to have remained quiet on the subject.  It was possible that he knew his health would not allow him to continue to be in charge of the police.  He died in August of 1897, soon after travelling to a therapeutic spring in hopes of physical improvement.