8 officers fired by Fresno Police Department last year for misconduct, report shows
.jpg "A Fresno police officer and a driver were injured in a collision on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.")
Eight Fresno police officers were terminated in 2023, and half of those were fired in the last quarter of the year, according to the latest report from the Office of Independent Review.
The quarterly reports do not describe which misconduct led to which kind of discipline; it reports raw numbers and a few details from most cases.
Certain cases are highlighted with more details by the report’s author, former FBI agent and Independent Reviewer John Gliatta.
Along with four terminations in the last three months of last year by Fresno Police Department, one officer resigned in lieu of termination, nine were suspended for a total of 530 hours and nine were ordered to attend more training, the report said.
There were 79 disciplinary actions in all of 2023, which was higher than the past two years of 58 in 2023 and 59 actions in 2022, the report says. There were 84 in 2020.
New policies for Fresno police
Chief Paco Balderrama implemented a new policy that began Oct. 6 and requires officers to turn on their body-worn cameras when they begin a Code 3 response, which is when an officer responds to a call or begins a pursuit that requires lights and sirens in a police cruiser, the report notes.
Fresno Police Department cruisers do not have dashboard cameras so the new policy was meant to fill in that gap, the report says.
“Chief Balderrama recognized this possible gap in transparency and the fact a change was needed to adhere to national standards and best practices,” the report says.
Officer-involved shootings
The reviewer completed reports in the fourth quarter of two shootings by officers, both of which had been assigned in spring 2023.
The report found both to be within policy, but noted a concern with the incident about 7 p.m. April 4 in which police shot 42-year-old Richard Castrillo in an alley between First and Second streets and south or Princeton Avenue.
Castrillo was in an altercation with his brother-in-law and shot his relative in the neck before officers arrived, police have said.
The independent reviewer wrote in his report he was concerned that the first two officers on scene did not immediately find the man accused of the shooting and make sure he was not armed.
They were not aware Castrillo was still in the alleyway and armed until informed by the suspect’s family about 80 seconds after arriving, the report said. It was close to another 80 seconds before the officers reported to dispatch they believed the man was armed in the alley.
Thirty seconds later they had shot Castrillo, who police said survived, the report said.
“It is concerning the first two officers did not attempt to ascertain the status of the man with a gun immediately upon their arrival,” the author wrote. “The safety of the officers, which included those still en route, and the bystanders in the alleyway, were at risk and should have been a priority.”
The report stresses the shooting of Castrillo was not the fault of the officers, but of Castrillo.
Violations of policy
Among the reviews completed in the last quarter of 2023, there were five violations by officers of unreasonable use-of-force or related misconduct out of 12 accusations reviewed, the report shows.
That included an investigation of two officers that was assigned to the reviewer on Sept. 14, 2022.
The two officers were accused of unreasonable force, a lack of discretion and conscientiousness, as well as making false statements. One officer was found to have done all of the accusations while the other committed one, the report says.
The section for discourteous treatment and conduct unbecoming of an officer found 15 sustained violations among 22 completed reviews, the report says.
This story was originally published January 25, 2024 at 8:00 AM.
