CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- No matter what happens, Rodney Monroe knows what got him a seat at the chief's table in the nation's 20th-largest city on Tuesday.

And he doesn't want anyone in Richmond to forget it.

"I don't believe that Rodney Monroe just waved the magic wand and 'poof,' here I am," he said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"If it were not for the relationships that have been built with the community, and the efforts of the men or women of the Richmond Police Department, I wouldn't be here. They'd be looking at somebody else."

The fact is, Charlotte is looking seriously at Monroe -- one of three candidates left after an exhaustive, and, at times, awkward search that began in January and will end by next week.

The field of candidates in the international search ultimately was pared down to three finalists who live and work within driving distance of the Queen City.

Two of them are good friends.

Monroe and Alan Dreher, assistant chief of police in Atlanta, spent more than 20 years together working in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.

When the two men saw each other at Tuesday's public forum, they embraced. After the forum was over, they got together over a soda.

Dreher spent 23 years in Washington, rising to the rank of deputy chief, responsible for police coverage of Capitol Hill, the White House and the downtown district.

Monroe spent 22 years in D.C., rising from patrol officer to assistant chief, responsible for coordinating the police department's role in special events such as the presidential inauguration and the Million Man March.

He left Washington in 2001 to become police chief in Macon, Ga. He came to Richmond in February 2005, selected by a search committee appointed by incoming Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. Violent crime in Richmond, including the homicide rate, has dropped dramatically since then.

Dreher left D.C. in 2002 to become assistant chief in Atlanta, where for the past six years he has overseen the department's day-to-day operations. Violent crime in Atlanta also hit record lows through 2006, though it has experienced an increase during the past year.

Dreher also keeps an eye on Monroe's son, Brandon, who is a student at Georgia Tech, where Dreher's daughter is also a student.

"He checks in on him for me," Monroe said.

Monroe and Dreher offer the big-city experience that is attractive to leaders in places such as Charlotte, a growing city of 650,000 with a surrounding metropolitan area that is grappling with big-city problems -- gangs and an upswing in crime in its nicer neighborhoods.

The third finalist is home-grown candidate Jerry Sennett, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg's deputy police chief, who has worked in the department for more than 28 years.

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.