Here’s what we know about the four candidates for Fort Worth’s next police chief
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- Fort Worth named four finalists in its national police chief search process.
- Candidates bring diverse leadership experience from Dallas, L.A., and beyond.
- City residents can submit questions and attend a forum on August 14 at City Hall.
The candidate pool to determine who will lead Fort Worth’s 1,900 sworn officers has been whittled down to four.
A national search yielded 51 applications, leading to nine interviews and four finalists, according to a July 14 city press release. Former chief Neil Noakes retired in May after four years leading the department.
Fort Worth City Manager Jay Chapa will make the final decision on who gets the top job, but the public will also have an opportunity to weigh in.
The city set up a web page for residents to submit questions, and plans to host a candidate forum at city hall on Aug. 14.
Chapa is expected to make his decision shortly after that, and the City Council will approve the hire some time in September.
Here’s what we know about the four people who want to be the city’s next police chief.
Robert Alldredge
Robert Alldredge, 56, is the interim chief and has spent the majority of his law enforcement career in Fort Worth. He came to the department in 1999 after a five year career with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona.
Before his law enforcement career, Alldredge served in the United States Air Force during Operation Desert Storm.
He has two degrees in criminal justice from Tarleton State University, and graduated from the FBI national academy in 2017.
During his 26 years with the department, Alldredge has held leadership roles in the patrol division, tactical operations, professional standards, finance and personnel, according to a bio accompanying the city’s press release.
Alldredge is a familiar face at City Council work sessions — often called upon to brief the council on policy changes, recruiting initiatives, and efforts to address New Years and July 4th firework response.
Alldredge was named interim in May after the retirement of former police chief Neil Noakes. He received praise from several council members ahead of the vote to approve his interim appointment highlighting his integrity and professionalism.
Eddie Garcia
Eddie Garcia, 54, is best known locally for his four year career as head of the Dallas Police Department, but most of his law enforcement career was spent in his hometown of San Jose, California.
Garcia was born in Puerto Rico, and moved to San Jose with his mother when he was 5.
He joined the San Jose Police Department in 1992 and rose through the ranks from patrol officer to eventually becoming chief in 2016.
His tenure was marked by numerous challenges, including an exodus of officers in response to voter approved pension reform, and protests in response to President Donald Trump and the murder of George Floyd.
His department received criticism for its response to a June 2016 Trump rally where anti-Trump protesters attacked attendees.
Garcia acknowledged his department could have done more to prevent the violence, but said they prioritized holding the line to keep the two groups separated rather than chasing fights breaking out away from the rally site.
When it came to officer retention, Garcia stabilized the force at around 1,000 sworn personnel.
He led efforts to recruit more LGBTQ+ officers, and established a religious exemption to the department’s facial grooming policy to increase diversity in the police department.
He also moved to increase departmental transparency with a use-of-force data portal that he would recreate during his time as the top cop in Dallas.
Garcia’s tenure in San Jose ended in controversy over his department’s response to the George Floyd protests. Officers used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, with one, Officer Jared Yuen, shooting a photographer in the eye.
Yuen was also seen on video licking his lips and taunting protesters.
The San Jose City Council approved spending $3.35 million in September 2023 to settle several lawsuits stemming from the police response.
Garcia got the job as Dallas’ police chief in February 2021, becoming the first Latino to head the department in its 140-year history.
He set a priority increasing community trust and lowering the city’s violent crime rate after a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Violent crime fell 19% during his time as Dallas chief.
He also made a point of apologizing to the mother of Santos Rodriguez, who was murdered by a Dallas police officer in 1973. It was the first time anyone from the department had apologized for the 13-year-old Mexican American boy’s death.
Garcia also created a wellness program to help officers struggling with the mental strain of the job.
Garcia left Dallas — and law enforcement — for an assistant city manager position in Austin overseeing the city’s public safety. He said the decision was motivated by a desire to spend more time with this family and work a more predictable schedule.
Garcia’s departure from Dallas was his second attempt at retiring from law enforcement. If he gets the Fort Worth job, it will be the second time he’s come out of retirement.
Vernon Hale
Vernon Hale’s most recent law enforcement posting has been in Maryland, but the Oak Cliff native has spent the majority of his career in Dallas.
Hale, 55, served in the department for 26 years working in narcotics, undercover and eventually serving as a department spokesperson and deputy chief.
He started his career in Dallas in July 1991 after leaving a position as a firefighter with the Air Force Reserve.
“The Dallas Fire Department wasn’t hiring at the time, but the police department was,” he said in a 2017 video introducing him as Galveston’s new police chief.
Hale emphasized creating a trust in the community through positive interactions with residents.
“I can’t help people that I don’t know, and don’t meet, and don’t listen to, and basically more officers need to do that as well,” Hale said.
One of his biggest challenges as chief in Galveston occurred in August 2019 when a photo of two horse-mounted Galveston officers leading a handcuffed homeless Black man down a main street went viral.
Hale immediately apologized, calling it an “unnecessary embarrassment” for the man. He noted the technique was technically sound, but said the officers showed poor judgment in transporting the man this way.
Despite the public blow back, Hale defended the character of his officers. In a community meeting following the incident, the man noted one of the two volunteered his time to help homeless residents get shelter during the cold winter months.
Still, Hale took responsibility for the use of the technique and promised his department would do better.
Hale left Galveston in 2021 for a position as an assistant chief of the Prince George’s County Police Department just east of Washington.
He helped plan the department’s $400 million annual budget, and helped coordinate resources across its community relations, homeland security, investigations and patrol bureaus.
Emada Tingirides
Emada Tingirides, 53, has spent her entire law enforcement career in her hometown of Los Angeles, and holds the distinction of being only the second officer in the department’s history to jump from a captain rank to deputy chief without first being a department commander.
Tingirides joined the department in 1992 following the Rodney King riots, saying she wanted to be a part of the solution to bridge the divide between police and the community.
She is best known for her work in setting up a program in her home neighborhood of Watts that fostered relationships between officers and residents in several public housing developments.
The program was later expanded city-wide and was credited in a 2020 UCLA study for saving the city $90 million through crime reduction.
Reverence for human life is the central pillar of all police work, Tingirides said during a 2021 panel discussion, adding that relationships are central to good police work.
She was also a guest of former First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2015 State of the Union address.
In her current position, Tingirides oversees the department’s central bureau, which covers the areas of downtown that saw massive protests in June over raids by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Some officers received criticism for their response to the protest with one caught on camera firing a rubber bullet at an Australian journalist covering the protest.
Tingirides did not respond directly to the incident with the journalist, but did say her officers were responding to a small group of “agitators” throwing rocks at officers from a pedestrian bridge.
She emphasized that she respected the rights of protesters, but argued that these so-called agitators were ruining residents’ ability to peacefully exercise their first amendment rights.
Fort Worth is the third police chief position where she’s been seen as a top candidate. She was in the running in 2024 to become the next chief in Los Angeles and was a finalist for the top job in Seattle.
This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 12:26 PM.
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