Interim Fresno PD chief reacts to nationwide violent crime survey

FRESNO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – A survey released by the U.S. Department of Justice looking at nationwide violent crime over the past year shows improvement for Fresno.

“We’re getting down to some of our lower historic levels of shootings,” said The Fresno Police Department’s Interim Police Chief, Mindy Castro.

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that homicides and robberies in Fresno are down.

A study done from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2023, shows there were 19 homicides in Fresno. In the same time in 2024, 14 were reported.

The 2023 study shows 456 robberies in Fresno -and 433 in 2024.

“We have tactical teams out in the street along with our MAGEC, which is our gang unit. And they work constantly on the street to develop intel,” said Casto.

She says a mixture of team efforts and modern technology is part of the reason for the decline.

Casto says the gunshot detection system called Shot Spotter has helped tremendously.

“We’re continuing that partnership because we really get good evidence. It gets us to a shooting quickly and it helps to preserve life if someone’s the victim of a shooting,” she said.

For rape and aggravated assault, crime rates in Fresno are up this year compared to last year.

90 rapes were reported in 2023 and 91 in 2024. There were 856 reports of aggravated assault in 2023 and 874 in 2024.

Casto says she believes the uptick could actually be due to a rise in knife violence.

“They’re more of a crime of opportunity where our gun violence often is are our gangs, and we’re able to sort of predict that or understand where it’s coming from,” Casto said.

She says the department is dedicated to improvement.

“This year to date, we’re at about 134 shootings where last year we were at 235. That’s about a 44% decrease this year from last year. And it was a huge decrease from 2021 to 2022,” said Casto.

To take a look at the Department of Justice’s full report, click here.

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