‘Get used to it.’ Fresno police arrest dozens in two-week operation targeting street violence

The Fresno Police Department on Sunday ended a massive two-week operation that targeted street violence in and around the city, including in Clovis and the county islands.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Chief Paco Balderrama praised the effort as a success and made it clear that the operation wouldn’t be the last.

“You should get used to it,” Balderrama said.

“We’re not done. We’re not where we need t be.”

Operation Safe Neighborhoods as it was known ran from May 9-22 and led to 115 felony arrests, 173 misdemeanor arrests and the seizure of dozens of illegal firearms, at least one of which was a so-called “ghost gun” that may have been involved in a shooting. The gun had likely been ordered in parts online and put together in someone’s garage.

“Unfortunately, these are all too common in our community,” Balderrama said.

Multi-agency attack

The operation was an example of how Fresno is different from other cities, said Robert Veneman-Hughes, a senior deputy district attorney with Fresno County.

This was a multi-agency affair that pulled in 155 officers, agents and analysts from the city, county state and federal levels.

At the press conference, Balderrama was flanked by more than a dozen representatives from these agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (commonly known as the ATF), the U.S. Marshals Service, California Department of Corrections, the California Highway Patrol and the Fresno County Probation Department.

The latter agency targeted some 170 people on parole and probation and made 37 arrests.

“This doesn’t always happen,” Veneman-Hughes said, even as these kinds of collaborations are as important as ever, he said.

“Right now, we need that strength,” he said.

“No one agency can do it alone.”

Enforcement operations like this do work and are proven out by the stats, Balderrarma said.

Though the perception persists of Fresno as a violent city, there has recently been a 24.2% decrease in shootings and a 32% decrease in homicides, he said.

Thousands of gang members

Fresno is not even in the top 20 nationally in terms of violent crimes, but it does have big-city problems, Balderrama said. That includes 20 or more active street gangs with an estimated 22,000 to 25,000 members — many of whom were targeted in the operation.

But operations like this are only part of the solution, Balderrama said, and the department is working with its community partners on diversion and intervention programs, including things like the Police Activities League and the reopening of a community center in southeast Fresno, which should be announced in the next few days.

“You can’t build a house with a hammer alone,” he said.