Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe has changed the culture of CMPD. He’s been open with the media, put more officers on the street and is working to get the crime rate down.
And what are we talking about?
A degree? A degree that he was given, but didn’t ask for? A degree that Virginia Commonwealth University didn’t have a problem with until he left Richmond to come to Charlotte?
Come on! Remember when Larry Brown was riding Allen Iverson to come to practice?
According to the police Web site:
Before coming to Charlotte, Chief Monroe served as chief of the Richmond, Virginia Police Department (2005 – 08), police chief in Macon, Georgia (2001 – 2005) and as an assistant chief of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department. He began his policing career as a police officer in that department in 1979.
Doesn’t experience count for something? Anything? What has a B.S. degree ever done? Are we really going to discount what Monroe did in Richmond, bringing the high crime rate down? And let’s not forget that Charlotte went to Monroe. If there was a real issue with his degree, then whoever vetted him should’ve found it before he was offered the job. Who runs this city? John McCain’s staff? But let’s note that Monroe isn’t Sarah Palin, and he does have the experience to run the department.
The Fraternal Order of Police seems to be sucking on sour grapes. Perhaps their choice for chief wasn’t selected and they’re still pissed about it.
Monroe says that he’s going to go back to school and resolve the issue with his degree. He should, but not because the FOP said so, but so that he take the VCU degree and make a paper plane of it and fly it back to Richmond.
Monroe isn’t a politician, he’s a policeman. Maybe the administration at VCU thought having the police chief as an alumni would keep them out of parking tickets. The administration at VCU is wrong, not Monroe. So while we’re talking about a degree, he’s trying to clean up Charlotte. Let the man do his job.
But if he has to have a degree so badly, despite nearly 30 years of actual experience, I’m sure UNC-Charlotte, Queens University, Johnson C. Smith University, and even Charlotte Law School, would be happy to offer classes to Monroe so that he can earn his degree.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 4, 2008.
