CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Members of a Charlotte organization that has been vocal over the past few weeks about crime said they’re pleased with city leaders’ decision to hire someone from outside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department to be the new police chief.

"We're thrilled with the decision," said Christy Wright of Neighbors for a Safer Charlotte, which recently marked to a city council meeting to demand action.

On Thursday, city leaders hired Rodney Monroe, chief of the Richmond, Va., police department, to replace Chief Darrel Stephens, who is retiring. Deputy Chief Jerry Sennett of the CMPD was a finalist for the job.

"Sometimes you have to go outside of your comfort zone and bring in somebody with a little bit of a different perspective," Wright said.

But others, including former CMPD Chief Dennis Nowicki, disagree. He said the job should have gone to the current deputy chief and gave this statement to Eyewitness News on Friday: "Several good internal candidates should have been given serious consideration" by the city manager. “The city manager was himself (promoted) from within."

Professor Vivian Lord, the chair of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's criminal justice department, said she believes public outcry led city leaders to choose someone from the outside, saying, "So now the city suddenly feels like they have this change, which is not a real change per se, but that's the way the citizens perceive it."

She said that’s why Monroe's transition will need to be a balancing act.

"(He needs to) listen to the administration and get a real sense of things and be patient and not be pressured to make these huge changes until he really understands the department," she said.

Monroe will hold his first press conference Monday in the Government Center in uptown Charlotte. City Manager Curt Walton will also be there and comment publicly for the first time on why city leaders chose Monroe as the CMPD's new chief.

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