BALTIMORE _ Joel Fitzgerald, the police chief of Fort Worth, Texas, has been chosen as Baltimore's next police commissioner, Mayor Catherine Pugh confirmed Friday.
Fitzgerald would have to be confirmed by the City Council, but Pugh said he will start work as acting commissioner after Thanksgiving.
"He has an understanding of our consent decree," Pugh said. "He is well versed on training and community engagement and he's a police chief who's led a large police force."
The appointment follows a secretive search for candidates by City Hall in which the public was told next to nothing and the City Council was denied information about candidates.
The search started after the sudden resignation of the last permanent police chief, Darryl De Sousa, following his May indictment on federal criminal tax charges. De Sousa had only been on the job since January, when he was elevated from a deputy commissioner position to replace Commissioner Kevin Davis, whom Pugh fired in light of stubbornly high levels of violence.
Interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle, also a deputy commissioner who stepped into the commissioner role upon De Sousa's resignation, initially said he wanted the permanent job but later took his name out of the running.
