Police Chief
Joel F. Fitzgerald, Sr.
Joel F. Fitzgerald, Sr. is the Chief of the Police Department for the City of Missouri City having begun his association with the City on April 27, 2009.
A 17-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, Chief Fitzgerald began his law enforcement career as an officer with the City of Brotherly Love’s police in 1992. He was named “Officer of the Year” for his district in 1993 and was promoted to sergeant in 1998. Fitzgerald spent eight years on the street, during which he was assigned to Philadelphia’s first Mobile Mini Station and earned a certification from the FBI in Community Policing. As a Community Relations Officer, he met regularly with citizens and businesses and developed plans to combat burglaries, robberies and community-related complaints.
Over the span of his career, his law enforcement duties have ranged from investigating violent crime to managing his division’s fiscal responsibility. In 1998, he trained at the Police Executive Development Institute at Penn State University-Abington. In his senior responsibilities with the Philadelphia Police Department, Fitzgerald utilized the CompStat (Computer Statistics) system – a program using “real time” data to track crime trends and hold commanders accountable for spikes – to design an intelligent policing strategy for his division. CompStat is the famed crime-reduction strategy credited for the drop in crime in New York City during Rudy Giuliani’s terms as mayor.
Before joining Missouri City, Chief Fitzgerald was the Commanding Officer for Philadelphia’s Intensive Drug Investigation Division. He led 69 officers assigned from local, state and federal task forces that targeted and prosecuted narcotics distributors.
Fitzgerald earned a Bachelor of Arts from Villanova University and an M.B.A. from Eastern University in St. David’s, Pa. He is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Business Administration at Northcentral University in Prescott, Ariz.
He and his wife, who is also an 11-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, have three children.
E-mail Joel F. Fitzgerald