BY JIM NOLAN

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first question from the public cut right to the point:

"Richmond is a fine city," one middle-aged Charlottean told Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe.

"Why do you want to come to Charlotte?"

"Are you saying Charlotte isn’t a fine city?" the chief responded, drawing nervous laughter from the crowd.

And with that, the disarming-charm offensive of Rodney Monroe — the one that helped win over crime-weary Richmonders three years ago and re-energized a fragmented police department — was launched officially in the Queen City.

For more than an hour yesterday, Monroe fielded questions from a rotating group of roughly 125 citizens who gathered in three separate meeting rooms of a downtown hotel to ask questions and hear from the three finalists for the job of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police chief.

Charlotte is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, whose 860,000 residents include Charlotte’s population of about 650,000. The city has been afflicted by a surge in property crime — some of which has turned violent — in residential neighborhoods of the city that once were considered relatively free of urban ills.

"Violent crime [here] is not so bad," said Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton, who will choose the next chief. "One of our issues is habitual offenders and repeat offenders. They just keep coming back through the system."

So Charlotte reached out and tapped Monroe as one of three finalists after an international search that began in January to replace retiring Chief Darrel W. Stephens. The two other finalists are Alan Dreher, assistant police chief in Atlanta; and Jerry Sennett, deputy chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Last night was the public’s chance to provide input on the best candidate.

At any given moment, Monroe appeared to have the most people in his meeting room, which included members of the police department, city officials and Monroe’s wife, Marvette, who made the trip to Charlotte with her husband.

The issues raised were the same you’d expect to hear at any discussion of cities and crime:

What is your strategy for dealing with gangs? With immigrants who commit crimes? What about cooperation with prosecutors and federal authorities? Drugs? How will you work with community groups?

"Our sole existence," Monroe said to one organizer, "is based on what community concerns are."

Problems are the same in most cities, he said. "People just want a quality law-enforcement agency."

Many in the audience were surprised to hear that Monroe goes to the scene of every homicide in Richmond when he is in town.

"That’s good to hear you say that," said a woman who runs the Charlotte group, Mothers of Murdered Offspring. "Because we go to every funeral."

Several times, the audience applauded Monroe. One woman stood up and said her sister lives in Richmond and thinks the chief was the best thing to happen to the city.

"That’s enough for me. I don’t have any questions," she said, drawing laughter.

Walton said he expects to make a decision by the end of next week. Stephens retires at the end of the month after nine years in the job.

"All three are excellent and could be chief for any major city in the country," said Walton, referring to Monroe, Dreher and Sennett.

"Chief Monroe has done a great job wherever he has been — in Richmond and Macon [Ga.] and D.C. It’s obvious that the communities in each of those places feel very strongly about him," Walton added.

"He’s a great communicator. Basically anything you would look for in a chief, Chief Monroe represents those qualities."

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