Home

New Fresno Police Auditor's Report Highlights Officer Involved Shootings

By Justin Willis, KSEE24 News
January 25, 2013 Updated Jan 25, 2013 at 7:37 PM PDT

City officials are glad to have some stability in the Office of Independent Review.

New police auditor Rick Rasmussen outlined his plans for stability in his first report.

The first report from new police auditor Rick Rasmussen is out.

It outlines recent complaints, and whether those have been resolved.

It also gives a detailed account of trends and issues officers are dealing with, as well as recommendations for things that are out of line with best practices.

Rasmussen stressed two things during the morning press conference: Transparency, and timeliness.

"There's no reason for me to sit on things that I would at least like them to consider in an effort to play "gotcha" down the road."

Three findings in the report stood out to police chief Jerry Dyer.

The first was an officer involved shooting where said officer used a secondary weapon that was not issued by Fresno Police.

The chief says a system is now being implemented to flag the use those "optional" duty weapons.

The second finding involves what's being called an "arrest check."

Rasmussen asked police to consider sending a sergeant to each arrest, for another round of questioning of the suspect involved, and to ensure the officers are fully aware of their duties.

And the third finding was with regard to the number of rounds fired during an officer involved shooting.

The report cites a trend of officers who've discharged their weapons too many times.

The chief agrees with that trend.

"It's important that we limit the number of rounds that are fired by officers in shootings and it's also important that we limit the number of officers involved in those shootings."

Chief Dyer says Fresno Police get 425,000 calls for service a year, 36,000 arrests and 60,000 traffic stops, leaving a lot of room for error.

"And our officers will make mistakes, and when they do, we do our very best to correct that behavior."

This is Rasmussen's first report as police auditor.

He says it reflects the transparency of not only his office, but also of Fresno Police.

The entire police auditor's report is now available online.

You can look at it by clicking on the "News Links" tab above.