joel fitzgerald

Joel Fitzgerald needs to gain the trust of the community if he wants to be Baltimore Police Commissioner.

Instead of repeatedly throwing our eggs into the proverbial commissioner basket and then axing them like failed big-time college football coaches, we need to change the Baltimore Police Departments’s structure from the top down.

Former Baltimore Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa is scheduled to appear in court for a rearraignment hearing next month, court records show.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said she expects the city's new police commissioner could be paid about $260,000 — a 25 percent increase compared with what previous commissioners have made. The salary would make Joel Fitzgerald among the best paid city employees.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says members of the City Council will receive more background information on her pick to become police commissioner when he is formally nominated next week — including a resume he previously declined to make public.

City Council would be wise to look at Joel Fitzgerald's background very closely.

Baltimoreans have a right to know everything possible about the man who wants to be the city's next police commissioner.

The secrecy surrounding Baltimore police chief nominee Joel Fitzgerald's application for the job is not helping build trust in a man seeking to turn around one of the most troubled law enforcement agencies in the country.

Mayor Catherine Pugh's choice to be police commissioner says he plans to stay in his current job in Texas until the Baltimore City Council holds a final vote on his nomination. That means Joel Fitzgerald would not begin work in Baltimore until late January. He is the chief in Fort Worth.

Members of the Baltimore City Council are pushing the mayor's office to release the results of a background investigation into police commissioner nominee Joel Fitzgerald. Mayor Catherine Pugh's office says it's confidential. Some council members say they won't vote for him without seeing it.

Even as members of the Baltimore city council complained about a lack of transparency as the mayor searched for a police commissioner, the body's president was being kept up to date and even played a role in screening candidates.

No matter who services as Baltimore's police commissioner, the city's real problem is the lack of trust between the department and the community.

The Baltimore City Council will hold two days of hearings in January on the nomination of Fort Worth police chief Joel Fitzgerald to be police commissioner, setting up a final up or down vote by the end of that month, the council president's office said Monday.

Mayor Catherine Pugh's pick for Baltimore's next top cop is a stranger to the city. Here's what he needs to know.

The selection of a new police chief for Baltimore should have been more transparent to the public.

The public is just now becoming a part of the selection process for Baltimore's new police commissioner. Here's what we need to know as the City Council vets him.

Baltimore’s incoming police commissioner Joel Fitzgerald is bringing his experience heading three previous police departments — all in the past five years. Here’s a look at each city by the numbers and how they compare with Baltimore. 

Activists who have been trying to reform the Baltimore Police Department say the new commissioner, Joel Fitzgerald, has to meet and develop relationships with the community if he hopes to succeed in leading a force that has been through much turmoil.

Some contacted in Fort Worth, Texas, were unequivocal in their disregard for Joel Fitzgerald. Said one retired police sergeant: “You couldn’t find a more unqualified person to move Baltimore police forward.”

If Fort Worth police chief Joel Fitzgerald leaves his post to head the Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore would become the fourth city in five years where he’s held the top police spot.