joel fitzgerald

Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald, a former nominee in Baltimore, was fired amid questions of his “judgment and leadership,” Texas officials announced.

By Jessica Anderson

May 20, 2019

Joel Fitzgerald, a police chief of Fort Worth, Texas, and a former hopeful to become Baltimore's police commissioner, was kicked out of his police union.

By Phil Davis

May 13, 2019

Here’s a chronological look at some key points of Catherine Pugh's tenure in Baltimore City Council, the Maryland General Assembly and as mayor of Baltimore.

By Sarah Meehan

May 2, 2019

Joel Fitzgerald dropped out of consideration for Baltimore Police Commissioner in January. And now that he’s back to work in Texas, Fitzgerald is facing questions over his commitment to his current position, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting.

By Lillian Reed

Apr 16, 2019

Michael Harrison, Baltimore's first permanent police commissioner in 10 months, has received unanimous support from City Council. That means he's also launched on a complex mission: drive down historically high rates of violent crime while reforming a dysfunctional department.

By Kevin Rector

Mar 11, 2019

Councilman Robert Stokes, chairman of a Baltimore City Council committee that will consider Michael Harrison's nomination as police commissioner, said he expects Harrison will easily garner the votes needed to move on to a final vote by the full council.

By Kevin Rector

Mar 5, 2019

On his first day on the job, Acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said he’s eager to get to work, meeting the community and the two thousand officers under his command.

By Ian Duncan

Feb 11, 2019

Baltimore’s spending board has approved a 5-year contract for the incoming police commissioner. The deal gives him valuable perks and a far higher salary than his predecessors, but at also makes him easier to fire. Michael Harrison would make $275,000 a year. He starts Monday.

By Ian Duncan

Feb 6, 2019

Two members of the Baltimore City Council and a pair of aides have arrived in New Orleans for a two-day visit to look into the work there of Mayor Catherine Pugh's choice to become Baltimore police commissioner.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 31, 2019

Michael Harrison, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's pick for city police commissioner, has met with select community leaders, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and U.S. District Judge James Bredar, who's overseeing a court-ordered consent degree to reform the city's policing.

The Baltimore City Council is already looking past Mayor Pugh's nominee to run the police department and looking to change the process before the next vacancy. We're not sure there's a legislative solution.

Police commissioner nominee Michael Harrison is making his first visit to Baltimore since being named to the job. But the mayor's office says he has no official business scheduled and will spend the time moving his life north from New Orleans, where he's retired as head of the police department.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 21, 2019

A delegation of two Baltimore City Council members and two staffers will go to New Orleans at the end of the month as as part of the council’s vetting of Mayor Catherine Pugh’s pick to head the police department. 

By Christina Tkacik

Jan 16, 2019

Baltimore City Solicitor Andre Davis says the mayor’s new choice to become police commissioner will hold community meetings in all nine of the city’s police districts in the coming weeks, as part of a plan to build support for the nomination.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 14, 2019

Talking to hastily assembled group of reporters to announce her new choice for police commissioner, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh defended the process she led to find a head for the department. Critics on the City Council and in the community took issue with what some called a secretive selection.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 9, 2019

Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald is no longer in the running to be Baltimore's next police commissioner. Here's what people are saying after Monday's announcement from the Fort Worth Police Department.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced that she has chosen New Orleans police superintendent Michael Harrison to lead the city’s police department, a day after her previous pick for commissioner withdrew from consideration.

The two cities racial makeup is nearly identical, while Baltimore has a higher homicide rate.

By Colin Campbell

Jan 8, 2019

Mayor Catherine Pugh ignored all those who urged her to conduct an open-transparent process to select a new police commissioner after her first pick withdrew. That's bold.

In January of last year, Baltimoreans first heard the news that Mayor Catherine Pugh would be firing the city’s police commissioner Kevin Davis. Nearly a year later, the city still lacks a permanent police chief. Below, a look at how we got here. 

By Christina Tkacik

Jan 8, 2019

A look at Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's latest pick for police commissioner, New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison.

By Sarah Meehan

Jan 8, 2019

In the wake of Joel Fitzgerald’s withdrawal as a candidate for Baltimore police commissioner, officials in his current city of Fort Worth criticized the process here.

By Jessica Anderson

Jan 8, 2019

Joel Fitzgerald, Mayor Catherine Pugh’s choice to become Baltimore’s next police commissioner, has withdrawn from consideration for the job, a decision that spells more uncertainty for a department that has now been with permanent leadership for more than seven months.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 7, 2019

Now that Joel Fitzgerald has withdrawn, here are some people who either applied or were considered during the first search for possible candidates, according to previous reporting from The Baltimore Sun.

By Jessica Anderson

Jan 7, 2019

Joel Fitzgerald made the right decision in withdrawing his name from consideration as the next Baltimore police commissioner, and now city officials should plan on a more transparent process when reviewing new candidates.

The interim commissioner has been on the job since last May. Why not convince him to stay on?

By Dan Rodricks

Jan 7, 2019

Baltimoreans clearly aren't sold on Joel Fitzgerald as the next police commissioner. How could they be?

Members of the Baltimore City Council heard a barrage of concern, frustration and outright opposition to the mayor's selection of Joel Fitzgerald as police commissioner, as a public hearing began at City Hall Saturday.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 5, 2019

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh’s office says she is postponing community meetings with her nominee for police commission, Joel Fitzgerald, citing a medical issue in his family. The mayor’s office called the issue an “unexpected medical emergency having to do with his son" which requires surgery.

Here’s how the claims on Baltimore police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald's resume stack up with his record as police chief in Allentown.

In a resume that was part of his application, Baltimore police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald pitched himself as a reformer and an effective crime fighter. But in the document, Fitzgerald overstates some of his achievements as police chief in Fort Worth, Texas.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 3, 2019

Here’s the challenge for Baltimore media: Cover these sessions with Joel Fitzgerald with the same intensity and resources as you do the Ravens this week. Getting the right person in the job of police commissioner is more important than whether or not the Ravens beat the Chargers Sunday. Really.

By David Zurawik

Jan 2, 2019

The City Council's Fort Worth field trip to learn about police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald was interesting, but their interviews don't answer the question about whether he's right for Baltimore.

Mayor Catherine Pugh will hold two community “meet and greet” meetings next month with her nominee to become Baltimore’s next police commissioner. Fitzgerald is the chief in Fort Worth, Texas. He needs to win a majority of 15 votes on the Baltimore City Council to get the new job.

By Luke Broadwater

Jan 2, 2019

A 216-page Baltimore City Council report released Tuesday offers conflicting views from Fort Worth civic leaders and others on Joel Fitzgerald, Mayor Catherine Pugh's choice to become the next police commissioner.

By Ian Duncan

Jan 2, 2019

Maryland's Commission to Restore Trust in Policing, which has subpoena power and is underway after initially being opposed by Baltimore City leaders, is focusing on providing as much clarity as possible about how orchestrated police corruption went undetected for years.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. announced Wednesday that he’ll hold public hearings and town hall meetings with police officers as part of his search for a new police chief.

By Pamela Wood

Dec 19, 2018

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said Wednesday that she wasn't aware that tax authorities had flagged an issue with Darryl De Sousa's taxes more than two years before she named him police commissioner.

By Ian Duncan

Dec 19, 2018

Joel Fitzgerald's background report gets a XXXXXXX job from City Hall.

City Council has an obligation to know everything they can about Baltimore's next police commissioner.

Joel Fitzgerald, named as Baltimore Police Department commissioner, needs to win a majority of 15 City Council votes to secure the job. Where do council members stand on Mayor Catherine Pugh's choice to lead the department? The mayor started the nomination process on Dec. 6.

By Ian Duncan

Dec 12, 2018

Baltimore City Council members have reviewed part of a background check report into police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald, but two of those who have seen it described the document as "heavily redacted." Councilman Ryan Dorsey says his review of the report was unsatisfactory.

By Ian Duncan

Dec 12, 2018

A group of Baltimore City Council members departed Fort Worth after hearing from leaders in the Texas city about police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald, but said they wouldn't be sharing their conclusions until the new year.

By Ian Duncan

Dec 11, 2018

Baltimore will commit to a new police commissioner who commits to us. Can Joel Fitzgerald do that?

How long is long enough for Joel Fitzgerald, the Baltimore mayor's nominee to head the police department, to make changes that reduce violence and carry out a court-ordered consent decree to reform law enforcement? Fitzgerald hasn’t been specific, beyond saying he’s committed to the job.

By Ian Duncan

Dec 11, 2018

Baltimore City Council members are expected to travel to Fort Worth, Texas, this week to learn more about its police chief, Joel Fitzgerald, who is Mayor Catherine Pugh’s pick to be the city’s next police commissioner.

By Jessica Anderson

Dec 10, 2018

Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey writes to Mayor Catherine Pugh requesting information about police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald.

The confirmation process for Baltimore police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald officially begins on Thursday, as the City Council takes up his nomination at its final meeting of the year.

By Ian Duncan

Dec 6, 2018

The Baltimore City Council released the resume of police commissioner selection Joel Fitzgerald on Wednesday, after he previously declined to make the document public.

Baltimore City Council member not questioning the qualifications of Joel Fitzgerald as the new police chief deserve the fluff award for not taking a stand.