Fresno police chief vows to fight massive surge in violent crime. It’s ‘all hands on deck’

Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama on Tuesday outlined new tactics his department will take to slow bloodshed on city streets in response to a wave of violence in recent months.

In doing so, he asked for help stopping the catch-and-release of shooters. He also said not having enough officers available to deal with illegal guns is contributing to lower morale.

It’s “all hands on deck,” he said. “For those doing the shooting, we are coming after you.”

He pledged a revamp of the department’s Street Violence Bureau in order to attack violent crime.

He also promised a faster response from patrol units to handle high priority calls — even if that means more overtime — plus a better use of intelligence units to get a jump on those causing the bloodshed.

The chief called the news conference after a several recent notably violent weeks in the city, with incidents that included:

• An hours-long SWAT standoff that started as a domestic violence incident Monday in central Fresno. As multiple officers were working that scene, a young child was wounded in an unrelated car-to-car shooting.
• The death of a young mother after she was shot in the head in southwest Fresno. Her child was in the back seat of the car during the shooting.
• The shooting of nearly 30 rounds at a southwest Fresno gas station that left a man wounded.

The toll of the violence adds up: 45 homicides in 2021 compared to 22 at this time in 2020, and 418 shootings in 2021 compared to 315 the year before.

Balderrama said officers have recovered 837 illegal guns in 2021 and seized another 129 from domestic violence suspects who are not allowed to possess them. With other recovered weapons, that’s 1014 firearms — “more than I have police officers.”

Right now, he said, the numbers are working against police. He cited 0-dollar bail for some violent offenders. In several cases, he said a shooter has been quickly released only to commit another violent crime — and only 706 officers are presently able to show up for work, either because of physical injury or other reasons.

While acknowledging the national crime wave, the chief said police can no longer use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for a surge in violence.

“That excuse is getting old.,” he said. But he conceded officers are feeling the strain of working under the pressure of the crime surge.

Morale among officers is low, he said, “because we don’t have the bodies.”

He also said the nationwide “Defund The Police” movement has lost momentum, saying there is support in the community for more officers.

“We are the advocates for the victims,” he said. “It’s a false narrative that (being) a police officer is not an honorable job. It is.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 4:10 PM.