FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – Southwest Fresno is seeing historically low rates of murder.
There hasn’t been a single homicide in the city of Fresno in the last 28 days, and there are even better numbers for murders in what was considered a rough part of town.
“Southwest Policing District has not had a single murder in the last six months,” said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. “This is a policing district that has historically perceived or viewed as having a high rate of crime.”
Chief Dyer says it’s no longer true, Dyer thanking District Captain Mark Salazar (below) and his officers for the change.
“I came to Southwest in July of 2016. Southwest averaged a shooting a day, said Captain Salazar. “This extraction period of crime view, we had three shootings, that’s a shooting every nine days.”
Captain Salazar says gangs are competing for kids growing up in the area, but the Fresno Police Department has forged partnerships with entities such as Fresno Unified, the Office of Ed, the Fresno EOC, and Southwest pastors, and those unions are drawing children away from a life of crime.
“We’re all linked up and that’s never happened before Southwest Fresno, and so these kids now have options,” said Captain Salazar.
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
