What's at stake:
Two weeks after city officials announced Mindy Casto will lead Fresno’s police department permanently, city officials held a swearing in ceremony for her at the Saroyan Theatre in downtown Fresno.
At least 200 people gathered inside the Saroyan Theatre in downtown Fresno for the swearing in of Fresno’s 24th police chief.
The hour-long ceremony commemorated Mindy Casto’s appointment as police chief. She is the first woman to ever lead Fresno’s Police Department.
In a speech Friday, Casto said she didn’t plan on ever serving as police chief before jumping into the role in an interim capacity last June.
However, she said she is grateful for the opportunity.
“This was not my plan, but it was God’s plan,” Casto said during the ceremony. “I’m beyond humbled to have been placed in this leadership role in the Fresno community, and I’ll never take this opportunity provided to me to serve as your chief for granted.”
Right before her speech, she took the oath of office, with her husband Steve — a Fresno police sergeant — holding a bible for her to swear on.
At the beginning of the ceremony, a number of elected officials were thanked for being present. That included Mayor Jerry Dyer and City Manager Georgeanne White.
All six sitting Fresno city councilmembers were thanked for being in attendance: Miguel Arias, Annalisa Perea, Tyler Maxwell, Nick Richardson, Mike Karbassi and Nelson Esparza. Four out of Fresno County’s five supervisors were also thanked for being in attendance: Buddy Mendes, Garry Bredefeld, Luis Chavez and Brian Pacheco.
Dyer, who previously served as police chief for 18 years for the Fresno Police Department, also spoke at the event. He described support from community leaders, who voiced their desire for Casto to be named police chief.
“There were business leaders, pastors, elected officials, Fresno Police Officers Association leadership, other labor unions, the sheriff, the district attorney,” Dyer said. “All of them had encouraged me to make sure that Mindy was going to be the police chief in Fresno.”
DJ Criner, senior pastor for Saint Rest Baptist Church and a member of the city’s planning commission, spoke during the ceremony and explained that Casto’s appointment would bring unity to Fresno.
“I believe that our God in heaven is looking down at the Saroyan Theatre saying one thing: ‘Fresno, you got it right,’” Criner said of Casto’s appointment.
Later when Casto gave her speech, she said she hopes to strengthen law enforcement’s connection with the community, and specifically noted how she’ll hold perpetrators of crime accountable.
“I truly believe unity is going to be the key word for my time serving as Fresno police chief,” Chief Casto said, “but make no mistake, the Fresno Police Department will not be soft on crime under my leadership.”
Casto first joined the Fresno Police Department in 1997. She was promoted to a sergeant in 2003 and a lieutenant in 2015.
In 2018, she was promoted to a commander, overseeing an entire district. In 2022, Casto was promoted to deputy chief under former police Chief Paco Balderrama.
Balderrama resigned last summer after city officials investigated him for having an affair with the wife of Fresno police officer Jordan Wamhoff. Wamhoff was formerly a vice president of the police union and became an elected Madera County supervisor in 2023.
Top city officials spent about four months on their police chief search before appointing Casto. No current or former police chief in California applied to lead Fresno’s police department.
