Tag Archives: Forth Word PD

FW police chief goes from hero to zero … just like that!

Well, as the saying goes: No good deed goes unpunished.

OK, it’s a stretch, perhaps. But on the day that the media were reporting on the miracle rescue of an 8-year-old girl from someone who snatched her from her mother’s arms, Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald — whose department pulled off the rescue — was fired by City Manager David Cooke.

The chief of police touted the department’s community policing policy as helping arrest the suspect.

Cooke said he needed a “change in leadership” at the Fort Worth Police Department. He reportedly canned Fitzgerald without warning and elevated the deputy chief into the acting chief’s role.

My noggin is spinning, man!

There reportedly had been some tension between the chief and the police union. The chief also reportedly had some harsh words with other colleagues and other city senior staff. Fitzgerald also had been in the running to become chief of the Baltimore, Md., Police Department, but recently bowed out of that effort.

The now-former chief of police says he intends to spend time with his family and consult with a lawyer to consider his next move.

This is, shall we say, kinda weird.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2019/05/community-policing-to-the-rescue/