An employee at the Dallas Police Department was fired following allegations that she lied about her college degree to receive a promotion. Gina Fowler-Strickland, a police report representative, was terminated on Thursday after a disciplinary hearing with the police chief.
Strickland was charged in June with fraud/fictitious degree after allegations surfaced that she was lying about a postsecondary degree to receive a promotion a year prior, according to court records. However, she failed to show up to a court hearing, and a warrant was issued for her arrest in September. The warrant was later recalled, but it is unclear why.
Despite the charge being dismissed in November after Strickland completed a pre-trial intervention program, the police department fired her for “engaging in adverse conduct when she was arrested for the offense of fraudulent, substandard or fictitious degree.”
Lying about a postsecondary degree to receive a job or a promotion is a class B misdemeanor in Texas, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.