police - page 7

Turlock residents debated police funding for more than two hours during Tuesday’s city council meeting, dominating the public participation session.

The majority of the roughly 60 callers opposed defunding the Turlock Police Department, with many urging the council to increase its resources and services.

While the council on Tuesday unanimously approved an agreement on school resource officers for Turlock and Pitman high schools, City Manager Toby Wells said discussion on budget priorities should take place around the end of October. Staff are scheduled to provide an update on the first fiscal quarter of the financial year then, he said, which would provide an opportunity to revise the budget.

Continue Reading on The Modesto Bee

Francisco Flores-Villanueva graduated from the Fresno City College Police Academy with the top physical award among 34 cadets.

The 34-year-old Delhi resident was part of Class No. 159 that graduated on July 10 from its 1,030-hour intensive format that began Jan. 6 that was heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, even in its final ceremony where normally family and friends would cheer on the graduates as they embarked on a law enforcement career.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, class was suspended from March 16 through to April 13.

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Turlock Chief of Police

In the past week and after our recent council meeting, it is important that I remind our community of our efforts of transparency. All of our policies, training, daily, monthly and annual reports, along with the use of force reports, are available for review on our webpage.

Our policy on the use of force is enumerated under Turlock Police Department (TPD) section 300 and again is on our website. We are in the process of updates but, in short, I would like to address concerns of many regarding the specifics of certain areas of our policy. California is at the forefront of law enforcement trainings and legal requirements for its officers. The recent passing of SB 978 required law enforcement to make public its policies, standards and training. Also, AB 392 was signed into California law and identifies when the use of deadly force is justified. SB 230 was signed into law and provided funding for training, established guidelines for use of force, de-escalation and other alternatives, when feasible, along with specific guidelines for application of deadly force and factors for evaluating and review of all use of force incidents. While many of these requirements of new trainings and postings don't take effect until 2021, we have already begun training, implementation of updated policy and posting of same.

Continue Reading on Turlock Journal

Calls to Turlock’s police and fire departments have dropped 20% during coronavirus stay-at-home orders, reports show.

The closure of non-essential businesses and police prioritizing staff duties contributed to the dip, said Turlock Police Chief Nino Amirfar. However, some crimes, such as disturbances and domestic violence, have increased slightly.

“There are less people out and less opportunity for criminals to victimize individuals,” Amirfar said in an email to The Bee. “The result is a lower volume of calls for service. However, there are still opportunities to burglarize businesses and vehicles and we have seen a slight uptick in those areas.”

Continue Reading on The Modesto Bee