Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Estella Patterson's journey has come full circle.

She began her law enforcement career in Charlotte back in 1996, rose through the ranks, went on to lead the Raleigh Police Department, and is now back home leading CMPD.

In this conversation, she opens up with "Carolina Impact's" Chris Clark about what first drew her into the field, what the job has taught her, and the priorities she's worked to put in place during her first 100 days.

- You spent 25 years with senior PD rising up through the ranks.

How is it going to Raleigh and then coming back here, how has that changed how you lead and bringing this to like a full circle moment?

- It felt just natural to come back here to Charlotte.

I know this community, I know this police department.

It's just really a memorable feeling for me to be back.

- What's the thing that you would say coming back here that immediately when you showed up, looked around, that you kind of thought, "You know what?

CMPD needs this."

Fill in that blank for me if you would.

- Hmm, well, I'm gonna say first for Charlotte coming back like, what is the city?

Like, it has just exploded.

There's so many things going on, but looking at the department, the first thing that I noticed was our staffing levels.

I said, "This city is growing tremendously but our police department's not growing commensurate with it."

So I said, "We've got to really start figuring out how do we get the staffing numbers up?"

And we've been doing that and working through it as a department.

- Now that you've been here 100 days, just over 100 days, roughly-ish, we'll say, thereabouts.

What do you feel like you've accomplished that Charlotte can actually see and feel and touch that you could point to that's tangible for people?

- Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just the crime reductions that we're starting to see, right?

So Charlotte has seen reductions in violent crime as well as property crime.

Of course, we're like any big city, you're gonna have those trends, it's gonna ebb and flow, you're gonna have those upticks and that kind of thing.

But I think that we're starting to see that we're getting a handle on our crime, which is good.

And our community is engaged as well.

So this is not just a CMPD initiative or work that we're doing.

Our community members have really come out in force, our community leaders, particularly here in our uptown, and I think you can see it tangibly the difference that it's making.

- You talk about reducing violent crime.

What can you do about that?

I mean, usually, you're all the ones that are called after it happens.

But what can you do to prevent things along those lines and where are you kind of feeling like, you know what, we can do better in that area to help?

- Sure, I think there's a lot of proactive things we can do, from a police department to a community, and let me start with community.

So we always tell our community members, "If you see something, please say something."

No, about amount of information is too little for us.

You know, for instance, we have a camera system in our real-time crime center where residents can be a part of that.

So you can register your camera with us so that if a crime is committed, we can get some leads from it.

But more so for our businesses.

Also too, one of the things I've been impressing upon our officers is that we need to be more visible in our communities.

When I came on the police department 30 years ago, old school policing, you knew your community, you were out in it, you were riding around, you were stopping in, checking in on your businesses.

But if we can just kind of get back to that old school kind of policing, I think it pays dividends.

- And numbers may say this, but the feelings, you know, have people not wanting to go downtown, not wanting to get on, you know, the CATS train.

I mean, how do you kind of bridge the gap and make the perception the reality if you would?

- I believe that for members of our community, they need to see it, they need to feel it, right?

What's the tangible things that is out there?

Because, yes, I can talk about numbers all day long, they're favorable to us, but if you go out there and you don't feel safe that's problematic.

So what we are doing is, really, telling community members to go out, to come to the light rail because we're there.

We're highly visible on the platforms, we're on the train.

We're working very closely with the transportation system and units here in Charlotte to say, "We want this environment to be safe for you.

Trust us, come out, see for yourself" kind of thing.

And I know that trust is earned, we just can't say it.

We have to prove it, and that's what we're about.

- How much pressure do you feel to be a positive example for all the young little girls out there that are coming through to finally see somebody that you know looks like them too in the position you're in?

Because that, I'm not saying it was unthinkable, it wasn't impossible, it was just improbable when things first started with you here.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Lots of pressure, extreme pressure, because I know there are eyes on me.

Anytime you're a first, everybody's expecting so many things, right?

And if you can't deliver, then you feel like a failure.

But in my eyes, for me, it's about being that positive example.

Showing young women and showing young boys too, anybody.

If you choose a certain profession, you can succeed in that profession.

You can rise to the top because they're looking, and I don't want to be a discouragement to them.

I want them to know that the job is attainable.

But there's a lot that comes with it.

- A lot of pressure in this job.

Where can we find you just kind of getting away from the pressure?

What is it that you do that takes your mind off of things for a little bit that lets you reset?

- Ah, yes.

I'm a big sports person.

And incidentally so is my husband.

We love, not necessarily to play sports, but to watch sports.

And so we're both real big football people, and so we enjoy going to football games.

- I'm assuming your team is, what, practices a couple of blocks from here.

Who is your team?

- Uh, yeah, I don't know I can- - We found the question that stumped her.

Yes.

(Estella laughs) - So my default team is the Panthers.

I'm a Carolina Panthers fan.

- Okay, go ahead and check that box, all right.

- Yes, I support the Panthers, but I'm from California originally, so I really root for the San Francisco 49ers.

- Wow.

- Because of my background.

But I love the Panthers, I love the Panthers.

We don't wanna make any mistakes about that.