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Fresno's Not Ferguson: Why Are Police Shootings and Complaints Down?

After years of community complaints about the Fresno Police Department, the numbers of complaints and officer-involved shootings are trending down. It has been roughly six months since there was an officer involved shooting in the city. Both police and community activists say a shift in the national mood about law enforcement is driving the change but question whether the change will last.

Fresno Police used to average one officer involved shooting every month and log dozens of complaints of excessive force and racial profiling among other concerns.

But now complaints and officer-involved shootings are down.

The reason for the decline is two-fold according to police Chief Jerry Dyer.

First, Dyer says the decline is a result of new training focusing officers on de-escalating tense situations.

“That includes providing mental health awareness training to our officers that is extensive. That means to make sure that their training that is being provided is to ‘slow down the call’ and make sure there are sufficient number of officers on scene and resources,” Dyer said.

But Dyer also points out that cops feel like they are under siege by national events that have cast police in a negative light.

He says they realize that some people no longer give police the benefit of the doubt.

"Officers are well aware of the fact that across this country there is increased criticism, and scrutiny of officers. And so I do believe not only in Fresno but in many agencies across the country, there is a reluctance to get engaged in certain types of incidents for fear that they are going to have to use force or deadly force." - Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer

“Also this is a result of the national climate. Officers are well aware of the fact that across this country there is increased criticism, and scrutiny of officers. And so I do believe not only in Fresno but in many agencies across the country, there is a reluctance to get engaged in certain types of incidents for fear that they are going to have to use force or deadly force,” Dyer said. 

Officer involved shootings and complaints began declining last year from around 500 complaints a year in 2012, to 400 in 2014.

The department is on pace to record less than 350 complaints this year.

But some community leaders are not convinced that the department has had a true change of heart.

“People believe if you engage with police, you can’t have a conversation with them, people still believe that if you do that then you are going to get shot. That’s reality in the streets of Fresno,”

That’s Booker Lewis a pastor at Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church and member of the organizing group Faith in Community.

Lewis doesn’t dispute the numbers but he suspects the recent change is more of a public relations push from the top rather than a truly fundamental shift….

“Dyer, and other people in the department, I think that is them saying ‘this cannot’…Michael Brown, Eric Garner, the fact that we had the protest at City College and went to Ferguson…’This cannot happen here’,” Lewis said. 

Lewis says any improvement in relations is superficial and unlikely to heal suspicions that Fresno Police don’t truly know how to constructively interact with the public.

Another pastor, Chris Breedlove of Community United Church of Christ, says if it was this easy to decrease shootings and complaints, what took so long.

"If it was just a matter of Dyer saying 'alright fellas lets calm it down and play it cool, calm, and collected' why wasn't that the posture toward the community before six months ago?" - Chris Breedlove

“If it was just a matter of Dyer saying ‘alright fellas lets calm it down and play it cool, calm, and collected’ why wasn’t that the posture toward the community before six months ago. It should have been that way all along,” Breedlove said.

The group has a list of demands that they say the department should pursue to transform itself, from a civilian oversight board, to implicate bias training, and notably a stronger, more independent police auditor.

Police auditor Rick Rasmussen

The auditor is dependent on the information provided by Fresno Police Internal affairs and cannot pursue witnesses or conduct his own investigation.

Over the last two and a half years, quarterly reports have nearly always confirmed the findings of the internal affairs review.

Rasmussen says it is not his job to find fault with the police and rejects assertions that he is too closely tied to the police department or city hall.

“Reasonable people who look at the same facts, they should arrive at the same conclusion. The office isn’t set up to come to disagreements. The office is set up to make sure that the police department is doing the right thing with the cases they are examining,” Rasmussen said.

When it comes to the decline in officer-involved shootings and complaints, Rasmussen offers another explain beyond national events…the creation of his office.

“Complaints have decreased. Complaints about uses of force have decreased. And officer-involved shooting have drastically decreased. And the only thing that has changed in the last two and a half years is the office,” Rasmussen said.

The police department is working to form a youth advisory council in an effort to make sure Fresno is not the next Ferguson.

Jeffrey Hess is a reporter and Morning Edition news host for Valley Public Radio. Jeffrey was born and raised in a small town in rural southeast Ohio. After graduating from Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio with a communications degree, Jeffrey embarked on a radio career. After brief stops at stations in Ohio and Texas, and not so brief stops in Florida and Mississippi, Jeffrey and his new wife Shivon are happy to be part Valley Public Radio.
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