RTD’s chief of police routinely drove an agency vehicle over 100 mph, data obtained by CPR News show.
Data logged by a transponder attached to the vehicle assigned to Joel Fitzgerald, Sr. recorded more than a dozen trips where the vehicle was traveling over 100 mph, and dozens of trips over 90 mph, between November 2023 and May 2024.
Fitzgerald was given use of the vehicle, an unmarked police SUV, because he was expected to respond to “emergent events” whenever necessary, records show. It’s unclear whether any of the speeding occurred when Fitzgerald was responding to a police emergency as a part of his duties as police chief.
The top speed logged by the transponder was 106 mph, recorded at 8:02 a.m. on Jan. 11 on Interstate 25 between Castle Rock and Castle Pines. Fitzgerald often sped on Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Denver, the data show. He moved to Colorado Springs last year, according to local property records.
Fitzgerald was placed on leave on July 1 and is under investigation by an outside party for policy violations, CBS Colorado reported Thursday.
RTD has not yet said what those policy violations are. RTD has declined to comment on the specifics of Fitzgerald’s leave; General Manager and CEO Debra Johnson told CPR News, “I’m not going to have a conversation” about Fitzgerald when asked recently.
Asked for a statement on the speeding data, RTD spokesman Stuart Summers said the agency, “expects its employees to conduct themselves professionally and adhere to all policies and procedures.”
“RTD is committed to understanding the facts surrounding activities that may be inconsistent with policies and procedures to ensure an appropriate response is applied,” he wrote in an email.
Other data obtained by CPR News shows Fitzgerald did not access RTD facilities very often, averaging just nine days per month during his tenure in Denver.
Fitzgerald did not respond to CPR News’ requests for comment.
If the speeding was not during an emergency response related to his duties as police chief, it violated RTD’s internal rules and the law. The agency’s policies that govern employee vehicle use state that workers must obey “all traffic laws and regulations.”
Fitzgerald, however, was apparently never caught by law enforcement. CPR News contacted 10 law enforcement agencies between Colorado Springs and Denver, including the State Patrol, and none reported any citations or arrest records.
Under state law, drivers caught traveling at 25 mph or more over the speed limit — which Fitzgerald did, repeatedly — can be punished with up to a $300 fine and a 90-day jail sentence.
Fitzgerald was hired to do a big job, and he pulled a big salary.
Johnson hired Fitzgerald in 2022 and tasked him with growing RTD’s police department as the agency tried to make its vehicles and stations safer. The department grew from 18 sworn officers in August 2022 when Fitzgerald started to 79 officers as of June 2024. He had initially stated a goal of 200 sworn officers by 2024.
He also was behind a controversial revision to RTD’s passenger code of conduct, which, in a first draft, would have banned passengers from riding all day. Advocates said they targeted riders experiencing homelessness and the changes were pared back.
Fitzgerald’s annual starting salary was $250,000, and he also received a $10,000 moving stipend and $8,000 bonus, according to his offer letter, also obtained via a records request.
That was higher than the state’s largest police departments at the time, despite RTD’s relatively small size. Fitzgerald’s force also includes hundreds of off-duty officers from local police departments and contracted security officers.
Fitzgerald was a 30-year industry veteran, leading departments in Texas, Pennsylvania and Iowa. He was fired as chief in Fort Worth in 2019 and later sued the city, though officials now reportedly intend to discuss a settlement with Fitzgerald.
He also recently applied for the chief of police job in Austin but was not chosen as a finalist.
Fitzgerald had a reputation for not coming to work very much. The data bears that out.
CPR News obtained security badge data for Fitzgerald and other RTD executives. The data show that Fitzgerald accessed RTD facilities on 18 different days in September 2022, his first full month at RTD. Since then, he’s used his security badge to access agency facilities for at least 15 days twice. But many months are much lower: in May 2024, for example, the count was just three days.
“I am not shocked, but I am disappointed,” said Lance Longenbohn, president of the local ATU union that represents many transit drivers and other front-line workers.
Longenbohn said there’s a running joke within RTD about certain managers that are rarely seen. Fitzgerald was near the top of that list, he said.
“He was just never around,” Longenbohn added. “We just never heard a peep from him.”
Longenbohn credited Fitzgerald for staffing up the police force, though he said bus drivers and train operators report that officers aren’t as much of a presence on the rail and bus network as they should be.
“On the contrary, the biggest concern has started to become that we have the proverbial cops at the coffee shop scenario developing,” he said.
Fitzgerald did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Board member Troy Whitmore, who chairs the board’s operations and safety committee, declined to comment when asked about the badge data.
There are some possible explanations for some of Fitzgerald’s absences. He could have taken extended periods of time off after his son, also a police officer, was killed on duty in Philadelphia in February 2023 — though the security badge data show relatively few days at the office in the months prior to that.
Fitzgerald also could have worked remotely. But the data show other RTD executives swiped into company facilities more often than FItzgerald’s nine-day-per-month average.
Debra Johnson, the agency’s general manager and CEO, averaged 13.4 days per month with at least one badge swipe between September 2022 and June 2024. Dave Jensen, RTD’s assistant general manager for rail operations, averaged 18.2 days per month with at least one swipe in that time period.
Longenbohn said Fitzgerald should have been more visible and physically present in his job as chief of police.
“I don't know how the chief of police could be working from home,” he said. “I mean, that's a pretty hands-on job.”
CPR News editor Joe Wertz contributed to this report
