What's at stake:
Ever since John Gliatta retired in August, Fresno’s Office of Independent Review has stopped publishing quarterly reports that audits the Fresno Police Department. For nine months, the Fresno public has been deprived of an independent auditor dedicated to reviewing police misconduct, evaluating whether internal investigations were completed properly and ensuring complaints about the police are investigated thoroughly.
Fresno’s independent police auditor in charge of issuing quarterly reports hasn’t released a single one in nine months.
That appears to coincide with John Gliatta’s retirement last August. The former FBI agent held the top role at Fresno’s Office of Independent Review since former Mayor Lee Brand hired him in 2017.
The independent police auditor’s vacancy not only means the Office of Independent Review has been without a leader for the past nine months.
It also means the Fresno public has been deprived of an independent auditor tasked with reviewing Fresno police shootings, complaints about police officers — including allegations of excessive force — as well as evaluating whether internal affairs investigations are completed thoroughly.
The span of nine months would normally mean at least three new quarterly reports from the Office of Independent Review.
The sudden halt in those quarterly reports became public knowledge thanks to longtime local civil rights activist Gloria Hernandez, who spoke up Wednesday night during the Fresno Police Department’s first ever community engagement meeting regarding military equipment.
The subject came up when Deputy Police Chief Burke Farrah corrected a member of the public’s statement about investigations into complaints made against Fresno police officers.
“We publish reports quarterly that document the action we take when it comes to disciplining our officers in each one of those cases,” Farrah said, referring to the 200 complaints made against police officers in 2025.
About 15 minutes later, Hernandez got a chance to speak. Among her remarks, she fact-checked Farrah’s comment about those quarterly reports.
“You keep talking about transparency and accountability,” Hernandez said at the Wednesday community meeting. “I have not read the independent police auditors reports since the second quarter of 2025. So where is the transparency?”
“The OIR (Office of Independent Review) is currently — the position is vacant. The city’s looking to fill it,” Farrah replied. “Our (Fresno Police Department) procedures remain the same, as far as what we report. Whether that person catches up on their work that’s done on the back end or not, I don’t know. But our policies remain the same.”
The Office of Independent Review hasn’t exactly dodged controversy over the last few years.
Back in 2020, Gliatta revealed to a civilian commission on policing that he deliberately sat on a report looking into a Fresno police officer accused of using excessive force on a teenager.
Even though the report was completed in May 2020, Gliatta said he delayed its release because “emotions were running rampant” following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He drew heavy criticism from the community for his actions while some councilmembers defended it.
After seven months since Gliatta’s retirement, it’s unclear how soon Fresno could get its next independent police auditor. City Hall spokesperson Sontaya Rose could not immediately be reached for comment early Thursday.
After the Wednesday meeting, Hernandez told Fresnoland it’s a serious issue that the Office of Independent Review hasn’t released its quarterly reports in nine months. She added that the California Attorney General should look into why no replacement has been identified to the public yet.
“If the Attorney General is interested in reviewing the civilian reviews and auditors throughout the state, I think Fresno is lacking,” Hernandez told Fresnoland. “I think the Attorney General should be looking into why we haven’t hired somebody.”
Will city leaders address community concerns about military equipment?
Just about 20 community members attended Wednesday’s community meeting on military equipment. It was the first time in Fresno history that the police department hosted one, even though a four-year-old state law known as AB 481 requires an annual community engagement meeting.
One of the main asks from community members Wednesday evening was to delay the approval of the Fresno Police Department’s annual military equipment use report since advocates said it was missing details required by state law.
The Fresno City Council will have to make that decision at Thursday’s council meeting, which takes place at 9 a.m., less than 24 hours after Wednesday’s community engagement meeting. As of Wednesday evening, the item was still slated for approval on the March 26 city council meeting’s consent agenda.
Farrah fielded most concerns and questions from community members. While he at times gave general apologies to those in attendance, and said the Fresno Police Department’s community engagement on military equipment could be improved, he didn’t make specific commitments to revisions or changes advocated for by those in attendance Wednesday.
At various points of the March 25 community engagement meeting, community members held up signs when they heard something that wasn’t true, or when the police leadership present wasn’t answering questions directly. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
At various points of the March 25 community engagement meeting, community members held up signs when they heard something that wasn’t true, or when the police leadership present wasn’t answering questions directly. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland
However, Farrah did say he’d take community feedback to Chief Mindy Casto and the Fresno City Council.
At the beginning of the meeting, Farrah said the reason why the Fresno Police Department had never before held an annual community engagement meeting regarding the military equipment in its possession is because of a longstanding legal interpretation from the Fresno City Attorney’s Office.
“I know in the past there’s been some concerns about why haven’t we had these meetings before, and I’ve shared these concerns,” Farrah said. “After last year, we were told by our city attorney that the city council meeting was sufficient, because it had offered dialogue, opportunity for people to comment.”
At least half of those in attendance Wednesday were members of Fresnans for a People’s Budget, a group of local residents who’ve come together for about a year to find ways to reallocate taxpayer money for community care and needs, as well as reduce police spending.
A few of the group’s members brought up specific state law compliance issues in the Fresno Police Department’s annual military equipment use report. According to AB 481, the annual report is supposed to list personnel and training costs for each military equipment item.
Fresno’s report doesn’t do that.
Several community members aired concerns about that, and Farrah pushed them on what exactly they were asking for.
“When we define that accounting, should I include my vision, medical benefits, my vacation, the cost of this building, the cost of electricity here — at what point do you stop?” Farrah asked.
One community member said the amount of money spent on training police officers to use specialized military equipment shouldn’t be a challenging thing to calculate and include in the annual report — which is once again required by state law.
“It’s not that hard,” the community member said. “You’re trying to make it complicated.”
Towards the end of their exchange, Farrah said he would like to “take a look at that for next year.”
Later, in the meeting, Fresno resident Arieana Castellanos — who has been airing concerns about police transparency for more than a year — pointed out that it’s not too late to make revisions to the police department’s annual military equipment use report for 2025, as it hasn’t yet been adopted by the Fresno City Council.
“I just want to clarify that personnel (cost) is required by the law, and it’s not been approved by city council yet, so we can still revise it,” Castellanos said. “There’s no need to wait until next year. You have an opportunity to do the right thing this year.”
Castellanos added that the annual military equipment use report was in need of revision because it doesn’t state or summarize how military equipment is actually used by police officers — another requirement in state law.
Farrah said the annual report already includes a summary of that information, even though it does not explain or generally describe how the military equipment was specifically used by officers in prior years.
“So that’s what we’re kind of getting into semantics here,” Farrah said. “So if I tell you how each and every use is used, then that’s not a summary.”
Another community member questioned the process of the Fresno City Council approving the annual military equipment report every year, considering required details in the report, as required by state law, are missing.
“It kind of seems like you guys put what you want on paper, you pass it off, and they (city councilmembers) just put a stamp of approval,” the community member said. “Even though we have these meetings, we raised some concerns and they’re still not going to be addressed.”
Farrah said it was the first time Fresno police held a community engagement meeting on military equipment, and thanked those in attendance Wednesday for educating him on their concerns.
“If we’ve fallen short, then we’ll take that comment back to our team and we will do better,” Farrah said. “And that’s why we’re in this meeting today, because people last year said, ‘No, we need a meeting,’ and here we are. So we’re making progress.”
After the Wednesday meeting, Castellanos said there were positives that came out of the community engagement meeting, and that there’s more to get done.
“I think the win is that there is a dialogue here when there was previously none,” Castellanos told Fresnoland. “I think that is really meaningful to people in the coalition.”
