Mayor Quentin Hart has chosen Joel Fitzgerald to be Waterloo’s next police chief, according to The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. Hart told the newspaper that Fitzgerald stood out because of his “level of education, professional experience, and success in implementing community problem solving, the use of intelligence-led policing, and enacting evidence-based strategies to abate crime.” If the city council ratifies Fitzgerald next week, he’ll be Waterloo’s first black police chief. Fitzgerald was fired from his job as Fort Worth, Texas police chief last year following an incident in Washington, D.C. that city officials had said brought his “judgment and leadership” into question. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that he got into a heated confrontation with a Texas union leader after it was discovered that Fitzgerald wasn’t a local union member. Fitzgerald denied acting unprofessionally. Fitzgerald had applied to be Baltimore’s police chief, and the city’s then mayor named Fitzgerald as her nominee for police commissioner in 2018. But Fitzgerald abruptly withdrew from consideration after The Baltimore Sun reported that his resume overstated some achievements from his tenure in Fort Worth. Fitzgerald now serves as the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office’s chief deputy.
