Fresno moves forward with police reform committee. Here’s who will be on it
The city of Fresno released the list of names for its newly formed commission for police reform, which is made up of Black leaders, local advocates and members of the Fresno Police Department.
The plans to form the committee were announced on June 11 minutes after the Fresno State chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other leaders in Fresno’s Black community listed their demands for re-imagining the department.
The committee has 90 days to come back with recommendations on police policies.
Fresno residents, like people in many cities nationwide, reacted with demands for police reform after seeing the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer while three other officers watched.
The chance to reform the department is historic, according to committee member Sandra Celedon, president and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities.
She said she will be challenging herself and the other members to “truly transform” how Fresno is policed.
Prevention the goal
“The issue before us is challenging, but it isn’t complicated. Prevention is always more powerful than treatment or enforcement, less expensive and yields strong results,” she said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Fresno City Police Department has a long and contemptible history of committing violence against people of color and opposing community safety approaches that work — like Measure P and Advance Peace.”
Measure P, a city parks tax measure, was defeated in 2018. Advance Peace, an anti-violence program, nearly was adopted last year by the City Council but was vetoed by Mayor Lee Brand.
Another police reform committee member, James Pitts, a professor of criminology at Fresno State, said he’s interested in a more transparent police department.
“It’s not uncommon across the United States when there’s an issue that’s questionable, in terms of police use of force, for that information not to come out for quite some time,” he said. “The people develop an opinion of our police and our criminal justice system in that vacuum. It may help — we have to talk about this as a commission — it may help to be up front about what happened.”
The committee was announced at a City Hall news conference in which several elected officials noted the potentially historic moment for changing how police operate in Fresno.
“We have the opportunity of a lifetime to address longstanding issues of racial injustice and meaningful police reform,” Brand said. “I want to thank the member of our task force. They represent the racial diversity of our city. They also represent a broad spectrum of stakeholders.”
Baines committee chair
Councilmember Esmeralda Soria said the committee will have an expert leader in Oliver Baines, a former councilmember and retired Fresno police officer who is Black.
Baines said he almost didn’t take the position when City Council President Miguel Arias asked him to “come out of retirement” for the committee.
“(Arias) didn’t tell you that my initial answer was ‘probably not’ because I’m enjoying retirement,” Baines said. “But when he described to me the will of the council and what he wanted the outcome of the work to be, and the buy-in of the administration and the entire council, I couldn’t say no.”
The committee’s recommendations are not set in stone. The City Council would have to approve the recommendations before they would be implemented. Some could also go into effect immediately while others take years to instill, officials said.
Also speaking at Friday’s news conference was Mayor-elect Jerry Dyer, the city’s retired police chief who is not on the reform committee.
“It’s important for those who are on this commission to know that I fully support your efforts and recommendations and findings that you’re going to bring forth to us,” Dyer said. “As a former police chief, as the future mayor, I condemn all acts of police brutality. I condemn all acts of prejudice and racism.”
Committee members
- Oliver Baines, chair, retired Fresno City Councilmember and retired police officer
- D’Anguellique Jackson, Fresno State, NAACP
- Sandra Celedon, Fresno Building Healthy Communities, executive director
- Greg Garner, retired Selma police chief
- Mariah Thompson, a Fresno attorney
- Todd Fraizer, Fresno Police Officers Association, president
- Aaron Foster, Faith in Valley
- Ron Manning, Fresno Police Department
- Bob Mitchell, community leader
- Ashley Rojas, Fresno Barrios Unidos, executive director
- Michael S. Reid, Fresno Police Department, deputy chief
- Luisa Medina, community member
- Scott Baly, Fresno County Public Defender’s Office
- Angie Isaak, retired Fresno police officer
- Joseph Jones, Fresno Pacific University, president
- Deep Singh, Jakara Movement
- Efrain Botello, Boys and Men of Color
- Mark Salazar, Fresno Police Department, captain
- Brian King, Fresno EOC Street Saints
- Annalisa Perea, State Center Community College District Board, vice president
- James Pitts, Fresno State Department of Criminology, professor
- Gloria Hernandez, community advocate
- Mai Thao, Hmong Innovating Politics, civic engagement director
- Grisanti Valencia, Youth Organize California
- Pastor DJ Criner, Saint Rest Baptist Church
- Pastor BT Lewis, Rising Star Church
- Keshia Thomas, Fresno Unified School District Board, president
- Veva Islas, Fresno Unified School District Board, trustee
- Marcel Woodruff, Faith in the Valley
- Phil Cooley, Fresno Police Department, deputy chief
- Adrian Jones, Fresno Housing Authority, chair
- Brandon Dixon-James, financial adviser
- Rev. Simon Biasell, Woven Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church
- Rod Wade Jr., United Fresno
- John Leal, State Center Community College District Board, president
- Gail Gaston, community advocate
- Robert H. Oliver, retired judge
This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 2:29 PM.
