In Fort Worth, high hopes for new chief
As a police officer, Joel Fitzgerald worked the Philadelphia streets for 17 years.
He brings that big-city experience to his new job as Fort Worth’s police chief, along with a telling four years in a Houston suburb.
When he took the chief’s job in Missouri City in 2009, Fitzgerald was far from his hometown Philly for the first time, and in his first role as a department head after rising to commander of Philadelphia’s top narcotics unit.
But by time he left for Allentown, Pa., in 2013, Fitzgerald was honored by the Texas House for cutting both violent and property crime in Missouri City 30 percent, taking a community leadership role and also for an outreach program in third through sixth grades, “I Choose to Follow the Rules.”
The local district attorney said Texas was losing a “fantastic chief.” A police chief in neighboring Stafford described Fitzgerald in Texas terms: “A cowboy who throws a big loop gathers in a lot of people, and he has definitely done that.”
After missing out on a series of other chief jobs, some as far-flung as Michigan or Myrtle Beach, S.C., Fitzgerald finally had a chance to lead a department, although Missouri City’s 100-officer force was barely bigger than his Philadelphia narcotics unit.
In Allentown, Fitzgerald took over a force of 200 officers and cemented a reputation as a chief on the way up.
That might have been a deciding factor for City Manager David Cooke and city officials, choosing a chief to steady the department after Chief Jeff Halstead retired and left a staff caught up in turbulent disputes over African-American officers’ complaints of discrimination.
Other top candidates had already retired or neared retirement elsewhere. Fitzgerald, 44, is seeking to show he’s ready to lead a big-city department.
In-house candidates Kenneth Dean and Abdul Pridgen, both assistant police chiefs, presented strong leadership qualities and good ideas. But neither has the executive or management experience Fort Worth needs right now. (Interim Chief Rhonda Robertson served well, but did not apply.)
In comments at a local forum, Fitzgerald said police nationwide not only must develop a closer street-level relationship with their communities but also must “stand for decency and respect and inclusion … When we do things counter to that, it erodes this great relationship.”
He can help rebuild that relationship in Fort Worth.
This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 5:59 PM with the headline "In Fort Worth, high hopes for new chief."