‘He knew better.’ Fresno cop who ‘blew off’ domestic violence retires before discipline
A former Fresno police officer who failed to make an arrest in a domestic violence case — or even document it — retired before he faced the investigation by the department, according to an Internal Affairs report.
Dave Dechow (DECK’-oh) retired in December 2022 after more than about 18 years with Fresno Police Department after fumbling the March 2022 domestic violence call, the IA report says. Police would respond 10 more times to the home between that call and July 5 of that year.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Dechow, 57, declined to comment about the report.
Dechow faced an investigation for two allegations: Failure to take reasonable action and falsification of records, according to the IA report obtained by The Bee through a public records request.
Internal Affairs investigators sustained the allegations against Dechow in February 2023, months after he retired. Dechow surrendered his Police Officers Standards and Training certification in November.
Police discovered the violations only after the victim wanted to file a restraining order on her ex-husband and needed the report of the abuse — but it didn’t exist because Dechow never documented it, the IA report says.
Though Dechow no longer works for the Fresno Police Department, spokesperson Lt. Bill Dooley said the agency does not comment on administrative investigations.
Dechow is also one of four officers who is the subject of an ongoing civil rights lawsuit brought by a man who police shot multiple times after they apparently mistook his cellphone for a gun. Dechow fired five of the seven rounds discharged toward the plaintiff, who survived, according to the lawsuit.
Some Clovis and Fresno residents may recognize Dechow’s name as a brewer at Tactical Ops Brewing, which closed its Clovis location in late 2023.
Failed to arrest domestic violence suspect
A woman called police about 1 a.m. on March 23, 2022, following an argument with her ex-husband, who was living with her at the time, the report said.
Dechow, the lead officer on the call, was accompanied by another officer as they arrived to the apartment, though the ex-husband had already left on his motorcycle.
The woman told Dechow her ex-husband punched her in the face, and she had photos of the injury and a blood-dripped blanket, the report says. Dechow declined to see the photos and did not follow up with any witnesses.
The photo of her face was redacted from the report released to The Bee, however, it did include a photo of a white comforter with several blood stains.
The woman said she did not initially report the assault because her ex-husband was on probation and she didn’t want him to get arrested. She had previously taken out a restraining order against him, but she did not renew it while the ex-husband was in prison, the IA report says.
The ex-husband returned to the apartment on the night in question to retrieve some belongings as officers stood by, but Dechow did not make an arrest despite being called back to the home to supervise the interaction.
He put notes of the incident into the police computer system, marking it as “information only,” meaning he had responded to a call where no crime occurred, the IA report says.
After responding to another call at the woman’s home a month later, in April 2022, Dechow marked in his report that the last known domestic violence incident was in 2017.
The investigation after he retired
Investigations into potential discipline are required even if the subject resigns or retires before they are complete, under Senate Bill 2, which became law in 2021.
That law aims to prevent disciplined officers from “leapfrogging from department to department,” according to John Gliatta, independent reviewer for Fresno’s Office of Independent Review.
Officers under investigation face an array of disciplines, including letters of reprimand, requirements for further training or potential termination. Most cases do not impact officers’ pensions, Gliatta said.
Dechow made about $43,000 in retirement payouts in 2023, according to Transparent California, a nonprofit that tracks salaries and pensions.
Internal Affairs investigators interviewed two other officers after the domestic violence came to light. Officer Eric Kong, who had 20 years as an officer in Fresno, accompanied Dechow when they supervised the ex-husband as he looked for his belongings.
Kong said during the IA interview that hedid not respond to the initial call that night and was not aware of the violence the woman had suffered, which she had disclosed to Dechow. Kong said he would have likely made an arrest of the ex-husband that night if he’d known, and certainly would have at least written a report.
“I’ve never seen him blow off a (domestic violence) call like that,” Kong said of Dechow in his interview.
The other officer interviewed, Gregory Nichols, came to the same conclusions, according to the report.
“He knew better. Or, I thought he knew better,” Nichols told interviewers.
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This story was originally published February 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
