FRESNO COUNCIL WANTS ANSWERS ON MISSING ITEMS

Police Chief Will Be Asked To Appear At The Next Session To Address Missing
Evidence And Other Issues.

Sparked by reports of missing drugs and money, several Fresno City Council
members said Wednesday they expect Police Chief Ed Winchester to appear at
their next meeting to address growing concerns about the department.

Their concerns come on the heels of a new admission that 11 pounds of
cocaine -- or 5 kilograms -- cannot be found in department property rooms.
Add more than $172,000 in missing cash, a missing AR-15 assault rifle, the
theft of explosives from the bomb-squad bunker, inaccurate inventory in that
bunker and a sexual-harassment lawsuit, and council members say they want
some explanations.

All those incidents have been made public in the past several months.

"The situation is clearly going from bad to worse," Council Member Garry
Bredefeld said. "Somebody is clearly asleep at the wheel, and that person
should be held accountable. There needs to be outside investigation and
obviously outside oversight."

Council President Tom Boyajian echoed some of those concerns: "It's not just
this incident. The bunker, the lawsuits. It never stops. There has to be an
accountability at some point here. It's a big concern."

Despite questions from several of the council members, at least two -- Ken
Steitz and Chris Mathys -- expressed support for Winchester.

Mayor Jim Patterson and City Manager Jeff Reid also commended Winchester for
bringing the problems to the public and outlining aggressive steps to
resolve poor record-keeping practices.

On Tuesday, Winchester and Assistant Chief Jerry Dyer answered numerous
questions regarding the missing cocaine and money.

They said they expected more items to turn up missing because of a
property-room problem that has built up over the years.

Fresno County District Attorney Ed Hunt said he is not aware of any cases
being tainted by the missing evidence. He said it is too soon to speculate
whether that could happen at all.

Winchester also said he will ask an outside agency this week to begin
criminal investigations into the missing evidence.

"Since we became aware that we've had a real problem, we've put a lot of
dollars and resources into this," Winchester said Tuesday. "And that was
before I became aware we were missing stuff."

Winchester declined to comment Wednesday. Police spokesman Lt. John Fries
said Winchester outlined the problems to the City Council in a three-page
memo.

Council members say they intend to question Winchester. They made plans
Wednesday for a special meeting next week, but it was canceled, Boyajian
said, because he did not want to engage in a "spitting contest."

Instead, Boyajian said he hopes Winchester will answer questions posed to
him in writing when the council meets again April 25.

Council members may tangle with Winchester and Patterson over a proposal to
add three property technicians to help clean up the record-keeping mess. The
mayor will unveil his proposed city budget May 1.

"I think rather than being Monday-morning quarterbacks, we ought to
encourage our best people to do their best work and provide them with the
tools to get it done," Patterson said.

"We need to give a department that's proven itself in the street an
opportunity to prove itself in the office."

Although Steitz and Mathys agree the department needs more support staff,
Council Member Henry Perea says that solution is irresponsible and the city
needs an outside agency to audit the Police Department.

Winchester has said he plans to ask the Department of Justice or another
agency to conduct a criminal investigation. Perea hopes to go a step
further.

"If you can have that kind of breach in a division like that, what's
happening in the rest of the department?" Perea said. "If we had the
situation where these department heads and this city manager reported to the
council and we had hiring and firing ability, I can tell you now, heads
would be rolling. This is unacceptable."

Council members have lauded Winchester for drastically reduced crime rates,
including significant decreases in homicides, auto theft and other serious
felonies. But the department has been under fire for several recent
incidents:

In late December, burglars broke into the department's bomb-squad bunker and
stole hundreds of pounds of explosives. It wasn't until the items were
recovered that police realized they had dramatically underreported what was
stolen because of poor inventory.

In January, they acknowledged that the poor inventory extended to the
property rooms and said they were searching for more than $200,000. On
Tuesday, Winchester said $172,807 remains missing.

In January, Winchester said an AR-15 was missing from the Violent Crimes
Suppression Unit's cache. It was reported missing last year.

In February, a sexual-harassment case filed by a former officer began. A
jury was unable to reach a verdict, and the case is scheduled to go to trial
again in October.