DENVER — The Regional Transportation District fired its chief of police, according to state records, a fact the government agency had refused to share with the public.
Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Database, a function of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, says RTD Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald was “terminated for cause.” The disclosure was first reported by CBS4.
Had Fitzgerald been fired for something that could lead to decertification, the POST database would have noted that he was "under investigation for 'X.'"
RTD has stonewalled questions from journalists about Fitzgerald’s departure, saying last Friday that Fitzgerald is “no longer chief of police” but declining to say if he quit or was fired.
Fitzgerald had been on an unexplained leave since early July, as RTD rebuffed media questions about the chief’s absence.
Fitzgerald had joined RTD as police chief in August 2022. His first-year salary of $250,000 was higher than that of the chiefs in Colorado’s three largest police departments: Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs.
At the time of his hiring, RTD had 21 sworn officers. Denver had 1,430 sworn officers at that time. Aurora had 704 and Colorado Springs had 803.
In June 2024, RTD reported it had increased the force to 76 sworn officers.
RTD denied a records request from 9NEWS for documents involving Fitzgerald's termination.
Fitzgerald joined RTD from the Waterloo, Iowa police department where he resigned after two years on the job, according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Fitzgerald was fired from the Fort Worth Police Department in 2019, later winning a $5.2M whistleblower settlement from the city, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.