Dallas, TX
Dallas PD employee fired for allegedly submitting false information to obtain promotion
Interim Dallas police Chief Michael Igo on Thursday fired a police report representative who was accused of submitting false information on a job application to get a new position with the department.
Gina Fowler-Strickland, 60, was terminated for engaging in adverse conduct in connection with her arrest on a misdemeanor charge of “fraudulent, substandard, or fictitious degree,” police officials said. The civilian police employee was arrested and put on administrative leave in June 2023, internal police records show.
Igo declined to comment on his decision.
Reached by phone, Fowler-Strickland told The Dallas Morning News she feels numb and worked for nearly seven years for the city of Dallas. She was accused of falsely stating she had a postsecondary degree to get a promotion, court records show. The charge is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
The case was dismissed Nov. 25 because she completed a pre-trial intervention program, according to court records.
Fowler-Strickland said the allegation stemmed from a job application that asked if she attended college, and she marked “yes.” She told The News she did attend college but didn’t graduate or get a degree, so she marked yes “because there was no other box to have to check” to indicate she had some college education.
She said she got the position, but soon after, was moved out of the new role when police launched an investigation.
“I don’t consider myself a criminal,” Fowler-Strickland said. “I never was a criminal. I mean, I did not falsify a document to be able to gain employment. I already qualified for the position.”
She said the process has been a “total nightmare,” adding she has waited at home for more than a year for the case to wrap up. She said she participated in the diversion program at her attorney’s suggestion.
She brought the case dismissal paperwork to the police hearing Thursday, she said, but was told by police brass that she couldn’t work for the department with a misdemeanor B on her arrest record.
“I didn’t have my day in court because they dismissed the charges,” Fowler-Strickland said. “It’s taken a whole year and a half. A person’s life is kind of turned upside down getting to the point of the hearing or the decision.”
She said she’s working to get her record expunged and plans to appeal Igo’s firing.
The firing is at least the fourth that Igo has handed down since he began to lead the police department in October. Last month, he also gave a written reprimand to Det. Esteban Montenegro, who mishandled a capital murder investigation into a fellow officer, and a 30-day suspension to Sgt. Arturo Martinez, who posted “aim better” online after a failed assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The vehicle belonging to a Dallas woman who has been missing for over a year was found this week, according to police.
The Dallas Police Department said 88-year-old Myrtle Polk’s vehicle was found in the 5600 block of South Lancaster Road, near Five Mile Creek, on Tuesday. Her body was not in the vehicle.
DPD said search teams will deploy in the area to continue the search for Polk.
She was last seen in early June along Indian Creek Trail, driving her Lexus sedan. At the time, a Silver Alert was issued, given her age and medical history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Myrtle Polk known as a pillar of her community
Polk is a devout member of her church, according to her family. When she didn’t show up for service on June 9, 2024, they said they knew something was wrong.
Also affectionately known as “Mama M” or “Aunt Myrt,” Polk is living with dementia. But her niece Tawana Watson said — as late as the day before — the family did not indicate that anything was wrong.
“She was a very good driver, she knew where she was,” Watson said last June. “I talked to her that Friday [and] she was in her right mind.”
Watson does not believe the matriarch left home on her own.
“She was such a trustworthy person, I believe that Aunt Myrtle met somebody that she trusted, she let them [into her home] and they hurt her,” she continued.
Myrtle Polk is approximately 5-foot-2 and 120 pounds, with white hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Dallas Police Department at (214) 671-4268.
A four-alarm fire at First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, destroyed its historic, red-brick sanctuary last year, and reconstruction of the edifice won’t be completed until Easter 2028. In the meantime, the destruction has taught the nonprofit institution a lot about its workplace as it has navigated the crisis.
Staff members were “scattered” after the fire, and as of August, permanent power still hadn’t been restored to the church offices, said Ben Lovvorn, First Baptist’s senior executive pastor. So, keeping everyone updated and encouraged during the rebuilding effort has been a priority.
“We’ve been very purposeful about communicating with our staff — and our congregation — so that they know and understand what’s going on, and that they are a part of the process,” he said. “At other organizations, this situation would lead to tremendous turnover, but our entire team has stayed intact. That [in turn] has provided consistency and encouragement to our 16,000 church members.
“Another lesson we’ve learned is making sure you have the right people in place so you’re able to handle a crisis like this,” he continued. “Finding those right people — and getting them in the right seats on the bus — is key to tackling whatever obstacles you’re presented with along the way.”
Fortunately, First Baptist has had those team members in place for a while. That’s because the staff has a biblically based, “shared faith and shared calling” that gives their work purpose, Lovvorn said. “Whether they’re a minister or work in our accounting department or in the facilities department, they’re part of something greater.”
That greater meaning is emphasized regularly, whether through monthly all-staff leadership luncheons — they brought in Babe’s Chicken for the one in August — or at “staff chapel,” where workers step away from the daily grind and pray together. Throughout its more than 155 years in downtown Dallas, “there have been good times and difficult times” for First Baptist, Lovvorn said. “But God has always been faithful in providing for us and seeing us through every season.”
The NHL is heading to Jerry World to see if outdoor hockey can get even bigger in Texas.
The Dallas Stars will host the 2027 Stadium Series game at AT&T Stadium on Feb. 20 of that year against an opponent to be named at a later date. The announcement was made Monday night before the Dallas Cowboys hosted the Arizona Cardinals.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be having a game here hosted by the Dallas Stars in this amazing, amazing stadium,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told ESPN, seated alongside Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on the sidelines.
The smashing success of the 2020 Winter Classic prompted the NHL to bring another outdoor game back to Texas. The Stars defeated the Nashville Predators 4-2 in front of 85,630 fans at the Cotton Bowl in that event – the third-largest crowd ever to take in an NHL game.
The league record is the 105,491 fans the NHL drew for the 2014 Winter Classic between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The capacity at AT&T Stadium could exceed 100,000 fans depending on ticket demand and how much of the venue’s standing areas are used.
“Five years ago, the 2020 NHL Winter Classic was a celebration of the growth and success of hockey in the Lone Star State, which was the third-highest attended outdoor game in league history,” said Stars owner Tom Gagliardi. “We have no doubt that our upcoming Stadium Series game will be met with the same enthusiasm and passion from our fan base.”
The Stars are coming off three consecutive trips to the Western Conference Final and are off to a 6-3-3 start this season.
While the opponent for the Stadium Series game hasn’t yet been confirmed, Bettman hinted it could be a Central Division rival.
“I’m not prepared to tell you who the opponent is yet,” Bettman told reporters Monday. “It’ll be appropriate, it’ll be good. It’ll be a team that the fans will have an interest in seeing the Stars play.
“We’ll announce that at a later date.”
The Stadium Series game is scheduled to be broadcast on ABC in prime time.
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