Fresno interim Police Chief Mindy Casto has had the interim tag removed by Mayor Jerry Dyer and City Manager Georgeanne White.
Dyer and White announced Thursday that Casto has been selected as Fresno’s new police chief, continuing in the role that she started last year.
The backstory: Casto took over the Fresno Police Department last June when former chief Paco Balderrama resigned after having an affair with an officer’s wife.
- She became a Fresno police officer in 1997 and earned three promotions under Dyer when he was the police chief: sergeant in 2003, lieutenant in 2015 and captain in 2018.
- Balderrama promoted Casto to deputy chief in 2022.
The big picture: City Manager Georgeanne White said Casto was one of 14 candidates who applied for the job, none of which were current or former chiefs from California.
- Dyer and White narrowed down the list to four finalists, but one of the candidates dropped out for unknown reasons before being interviewed.
- The city interviewed Casto and the two other finalists over Zoom on Feb. 6. One of the other finalists had served as a police chief in a mid-sized city in Nevada, leaving that position around five years ago. Another finalist was a former police chief from the east coast.
Zoom in: Dyer pointed to three critical situations over Casto’s tenure as interim chief that she handled “flawlessly.”
- Those incidents were the arrest of an officer for child pornography, the suicide of a female officer and an officer involved shooting where a veteran sergeant was shot multiple times during an ambush.
What they’re saying: “Mindy is well respected by her police officers, professional staff and those in the community,” Dyer said. “In fact, over the past eight months I can’t remember a week that has gone by where a member of the police department or a member of the community hasn’t reached out to me and encouraged me to appoint Mindy Casto as the permanent police chief.”
- Casto said she never planned to become the police chief throughout her career with the department.
- “I know a lot will be expected of me as your chief, and the trust that’s being placed in me today is not taken lightly,” Casto said. “And I don’t plan to let you down.”
