The Clovis Chamber of Commerce held their breakfast series Wake Up Clovis via Zoom on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 9 a.m. with Clovis Police Chief Curt Fleming as the special guest.
Free to the public, the Wake Up Clovis series was meant to be an in-person series of classes, but due to the pandemic it had to change and became a series of Zoom meetings. The meeting was hosted by CEO and President of the Chamber of Commerce Greg Newman.
Questions during the meeting were previously submitted to Newman and then passed along to Fleming, however attendees were also encouraged to ask their own questions during the event.
After a quick introduction, Fleming was asked what made Clovis different from other places he has worked before. Fleming answered that unlike previous jobs here in Clovis, they take every call very personal and that makes Clovis unique and different.
“It didn’t matter what the call was, what the crime was, we were going to follow through all the way to the end,” Fleming said. “No matter who’s calling, but because they are calling it’s an important call and we take every call seriously.”
Fleming was also asked about how the police department was prepared during the civil unrest that happened in the last few months. Fleming said that the department has a mobile field force whose objective is to keep the peace and ensure that people are peacefully protesting. Fleming also said that they made sure they had the right equipment just in case they needed it.
“Locally, we had social media chatter of different events that were going to happen, so we were prepared for them,” Fleming said. “We didn’t have any issues that we had to directly get involved with here in our city.”
Newman went on to ask about the talk of defunding the police department and what the police chief’s take on the subject was.
Fleming commented that while talking to the city manager about the topic they jokingly said that the police department has been defunded for years. Fleming mentioned that the City of Clovis’ police department is the lowest staffed department of cities with over 100,000 in population in the state of California.
“Today in 2020 we are at 98 officers and our population is at about 119,000 which puts us at 0.82 officers per every thousand (residents).” Fleming said.
However, Fleming also said that even with low staff numbers Clovis was the safest city in the Central Valley.
Another topic talked about during the meeting was the department’s role in enforcing of COVID-19 laws in the city of Clovis. Fleming said that so far the department hasn’t issued a single citation for anyone defying any health ordinance regarding COVID-19. However, they have gone out and asked for compliance of the ordinances and they push the enforcement to the Economic Development Director Andy Haussler.
Fleming mentioned that the only thing related to the pandemic they have been policing is price gouging and that they haven’t really enforced any mask wearing or social distancing. However, he also said that they will go out for large gatherings that don’t follow social distancing and try to disperse the gathering.
“We’re trying to find that balance, we’re not trying to be that heavy handed government coming in and telling people what to do,” Fleming said. “Knowing that we are in a pandemic and we’re also in a challenging time for law enforcement is a tough balance to maintain.”
Newman asked Fleming if he had seen any changes in crime patterns since the pandemic began in March. Fleming said that at the beginning of the pandemic the number of calls for service dropped very significantly. He also mentioned that prior to reopening, calls for service normalized and that this last month calls exceeded the normal from previous years.
Fleming said that last month there has also been an increase in violent crimes and that there have been six shootings in the city last month. Fleming also mentioned that because there is “Zero Bail” currently in the state that their job is becoming more difficult.
“It’s very challenging for us to be effective and try to keep our city safe,” Fleming said.
When asked about current projects being worked on by the department Fleming mentioned two projects that he’s passionate about.
The first one being the drone project, which allows a drone to be deployed to where a call is made within less than a minute and will help officers respond accordingly to each call.
The second project that is currently being tested by the department is the “Live 911 Call” where officers are allowed to listen to a live 911 call in their patrol car. Fleming said that this will help officers get real time information on the type of emergency they are responding to.
To wrap up the meeting, Fleming says he wants to fully staff the department before retiring.
“Before I retire some day I would love to get us at least one officer per 1,000 population,” Fleming said. “Those are my goals to have the best and hire the best like we had traditionally.”
The next Wake Up Clovis Zoom meeting is Wednesday, Aug. 26 and will feature Fresno County Environmental Health Specialist Thomas Fuller and the topic will be the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information or to RSVP to a Wake Up Clovis event, call (559) 299-7363 or email info@clovischamber.com.