Detroit’s Board of Police Commissioners will continue the search for the city’s next police chief Thursday, with public interviews of five candidates.
A BridgeDetroit review of publicly available information found that three of the five candidates have faced lawsuits or internal investigations into misconduct while they were employed in other police departments.
That information carries particular weight in Detroit, where the history of tension between police and residents is long and, for many, quite painful. The city’s most dramatic civil disturbance, the 1967 uprising, was spurred by frustration among African American residents about police brutality. Thirty years later, two officers beat a black man, Malice Green, to death with a flashlight while searching him for drugs. And in the early part of this century, the city’s police department labored under a federal consent agreement for a decade to correct problems with excessive force and unlawful detentions and arrests.
The department also had a chief resign more than a decade ago amid a scandal involving his relationship with a subordinate officer.
Darryl Woods, chair of the BOPC, did not immediately return a request for comment on the candidate search Tuesday.
The five police chief finalists were chosen through a process designed by the police commissioners. TJA Staffing Services, an executive search firm selected by a special BOPC committee in November to conduct the national search, provided the board with a list of 25 candidates. The firm ultimately recommended five for the position. The board announced the five finalists during its Jan. 23rd meeting.
After the candidates are interviewed Thursday, the board will send a list of its top three candidates to the mayor’s office. Then, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will make his final selection. From there, the Detroit City Council will vote to approve or deny the mayor’s appointment of a new chief.
Only one of the finalists, interim police chief Todd Bettison, is an internal candidate. Another candidate was recently hired as the police chief in a city in Colorado and another was recently promoted to a high-level position in Chicago. Two candidates were the subjects of internal investigations in the last three years. Three of the top five recommended candidates were listed as candidates for police chief in Austin, Texas last summer.
Here is the list of finalists, with their backgrounds:
Vernon Coakley Jr.
Coakley rose through the ranks during his 32-year career in law enforcement with Kalamazoo’s Department of Public Safety. He was promoted to Chief of Public Safety in 2020 after former Chief Karianne Thomas was terminated over the mishandling of Black Lives Matter protests and a white supremacist rally that summer.
Coakley retired from the department in Dec. 2022 after an independent investigation found he violated the department’s Code of Conduct after three individuals came forward with allegations of harassment, sexual harassment and verbal abuse. The allegations were laid out in a 30-page report following an investigation by INCompliance, a third-party firm the city contracted to investigate the allegations.
Coakley’s separation agreement allowed him to retire in “good standing” with 12 months of pay, which was $155,000, as well as pay for unused sick and vacation time, his full pension. A provision in the separation agreement contract also assured he wouldn’t sue the city or speak poorly about city employees.
Coakley could not be reached for comment.
Alan Fear
Alan Fear is in his 29th year of law enforcement and accepted the Chief of Police position in Lamar, Colo. last year. Before then, he was the Commander of Police Operations in Sterling, Colo. Fear’s LinkedIn profile says he retired from the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Police Department after 15 years in 2020, and then in Oct. 2020, he co-founded the Guardian Training Institute.
According to the City of Lamar’s website, Fear has an associate’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership.
Fear told BridgeDetroit he was recognized by the United States Department of Justice for innovative leadership and community outreach. What he hopes to bring to the department includes: recruitment and retention, mental wellness, community engagement, accountability, collaboration, innovation, mediation and arbitration and relationship building and trust.
“I believe the job we do in law enforcement matters. I believe in strong relationships and partnering with the community is vital to our success,” Fear said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We are all pieces to the puzzle and have to work together in order to make Detroit the place we all want it to be.”
Joel Fitzgerald
This isn’t a new process for Fitzgerald, who has been named police chief in six cities across the United States, according to his bio on the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association’s website, where he serves on the executive board.
Fitzgerald was a police officer in Philadelphia for 17 years before he landed his first job as police chief in Missouri City, Texas in 2009.
In the 15 years since then, Fitzgerald has served as police chief in 5 cities across the country, spending no more than 4 years in one department before moving on to the next.
- 2013-15: Allentown, Penn.
- 2015-19: Fort Worth, TexasJan. 2020: Chief Deputy of the City of Philadelphia’s Sheriff’s Office
- June 2020: Chief of Police of Waterloo, Iowa
- June 2022: Chief of Police and Emergency Management for the Regional Transportation District in Denver, Colo.
Fitzgerald earned a PhD in Business Administration from Northcentral University and has participated in extensive leadership training programs including Harvard University’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program.
During his 30 years in law enforcement, Fitzgerald has been the subject of controversy at multiple jobs.
Fitzgerald was terminated from the Fort Worth Police Department in 2019, and a termination letter from Fort Worth’s city manager listed multiple reasons for his firing including his lack of good judgment, a track record of making decisions in his own best interest and loss of confidence. A state appeals panel later determined he should’ve been “honorably discharged” from Fort Worth PD, rather than generally discharged.
Fitzgerald filed a lawsuit against the City of Fort Worth alleging he was retaliated against for reporting city violations days before he was supposed to meet with the FBI. He was awarded a $5.2 million settlement last year when the five-year legal battle finally ended.
Following his tenure in Fort Worth, Fitzgerald went on to become Waterloo, Iowa’s police chief in 2020. Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart spoke highly of Fitzgerland’s work in a small town of 67,000 residents. Critics questioned how much time he spent interviewing for top-brass positions nationwide. He resigned in 2022 when he accepted a new position as the Chief of Police and Emergency Management with Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD).
Fitzgerald’s time with Denver’s RTD was also controversial and ended with a termination letter in September outlining concerns about speeding over 100mph on multiple occasions, unauthorized business trips, intervening in internal affairs, and several others. Fitzgerald filed a lawsuit in November alleging the transit authority fired him based on false allegations, a racially biased investigation and in retaliation after he filed an EEO complaint a month before he was terminated.
Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment.
Joshua Wallace
Wallace spent most of his 25-year career in law enforcement with the Chicago Police Department, according to a 2023 press release announcing his promotion to Commander of the Criminal Network Group within the Chicago Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau. Before his most recent promotion, Wallace rose through the department’s various ranks and specialized commands before becoming a commander. He has a bachelor’s degree from Calumet College and has attended several law enforcement training programs including the FBI’s National Academy.
“I do believe my experience prepared me for a leadership position,” Wallace told BridgeDetroit, adding that Chicago PD is similar to Detroit. For example, Chicago has three police oversight bodies.
Wallace was a finalist in multiple cities’ search for a new chief including Des Moines, Iowa, Boulder, Colo., and Austin, Texas, as recently as the fall of 2024. His personal finances came under scrutiny when he was one of the top two finalists being considered in the Des Moines Police Department’s search for a police chief. The Des Moines Register first reported on his bankruptcy filing. According to that report, he was $840,000 in debt when he filed for bankruptcy in February 2024. Wallace told BridgeDetroit that the bankruptcy was in relation to his divorce and he’s still required to pay back the debt he incurred.
“Unfortunately I was married for 26 years and that ended, and as a result of the divorce, the best option for me at the time was to file for personal bankruptcy,” Wallace told BridgeDetroit, “Many people think my debt was wiped clean and that’s not the case. I took on the debt, it was restructured, and it’s being paid back as required.” Wallace said.
According to data from the Invisible Institute, Wallace has had 47 allegations of police misconduct levied against him with one sustained use of force complaint that dates back to 2005. According to the Institute’s data, the complaint involved a firearm and resulted in injury and Wallace received a 5-day suspension as a result of the investigation.
Todd Bettison
Todd Bettison has been with the Detroit Police Department for nearly 30 years, according to the city’s website, and is the only internal candidate in the running for the position.
Bettison joined DPD in 1994 as a patrol officer and rose through the ranks. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University and earned a graduate business certificate from Mike Ilitch School of Business, according to the city’s website. He left the police department in 2022 to become deputy mayor.
Bettison was at the center of a controversy in 2007 when he was driving under the influence in an unmarked police department vehicle and crashed into a telephone pole on Detroit’s east side. A commander at the time, Bettison later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle while impaired.
Bettison was named interim Detroit Police Chief last year following the announcement that former Chief James White would be leaving his post to lead the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network.
Bettison declined to comment for this story.
Who picked the candidates?
Under the City Charter, the Board of Police Commissioners is responsible for conducting the search for candidates and providing a list of recommended candidates to the mayor.
Police Commissioners Jesus Hernandez, Linda Bernard, and Eva Garza Dewaelsche are on the special committee overseeing the search, as well as BOPC Chair Woods serving in an ex-officio capacity.
TJA was one of four bids the committee considered, according to a memo summarizing updates from a Nov. 8 meeting, and they were chosen based on the company’s previous experience, 30% retainer fee, and the ability to shortlist candidates and adhere to a 60-90 day process. Documents related to the 2024-25 contract indicate the contract is $70,000
The same search firm, TJA Staffing Services, was contracted to conduct a national search for police chief candidates in 2021 when James White was hired as Detroit’s police chief, During that search, two of the three finalist candidates were working within the county, and the other was Ann Arbor’s police chief.
Dpd has Assistant Chief Fitzgerald who could be a good chief he is a 30 year plus vet with many years street experience
Also Deputy Chief Jackie Pritchett who is has 30 years and has risen through the ranks and Commander Kyra Hope who has 38 years rising through the ranks why not one of them?