A Fresno officer facing a hearing before the state board that regulates law enforcement surrendered his certification this week, the board said on Wednesday.
Khammouane Kevin Thakham, a 32-year veteran of Fresno Police Department, surrendered the certification the day before his scheduled hearing, officials told the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commission during a meeting Wednesday in West Sacramento.
Surrendering the certification is treated the same as it being revoked, the commission said.
The commission’s advisory board recommended his certification be revoked last month, but the case would have to have also be heard and revoked by the commission and an administrative judge in two separate hearings before it would be official.
The Fresno Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thakham, 55, admitted to Internal Affairs he made three bogus 911 calls in 2023 in an effort to compel a woman who had spurned him into calling him for help, according to POST records. The calls and video from police responses were included in the public record.
He addressed the incident in a letter he previously submitted to the advisory board in February.
“I take full responsibility for my actions in 2023,” Thakham said in his letter. “I violated department policy and state law, and I am deeply remorseful. My conduct does not reflect the standards I have upheld throughout my career.”
His letter pointed to a stressful time in his life as he cared for his ailing mother.
The fake 911 calls
Thakham made the 911 calls while blocking his number to prevent them from being traced to him, according to the POST records.
In each case, he told the dispatcher he was hearing a disturbance coming from the apartment belonging to the woman, who lived there with a young son. The woman had cut off contact with the officer after they dated for about a year, records said.
The woman and her son, who often acted as a translator for his mother, told responding officers they had become stressed by the repeated police response to their home. At one point, they believed the officers were harassing them on behalf of Thakham, the POST records said.
“(Thakham) stated he did this because he believed the disruption caused by the police response would prompt Victim 1 to reach out to him for advice and perhaps resume their relationship,” the POST’s records say.
The investigation found Thakham had committed “conduct unbecoming of a police officer,” one of several findings that can lead an officer to be disciplined.
He was disciplined with a 160-hour suspension, demotion from the rank of corporal and given a last chance agreement, the records say. A last chance agreement sets out strict guidelines for the officer under discipline.
Thakham was not at the hearing on Wednesday in West Sacramento, but critics of police were. That included Tasha Williamson, a community activist based in San Diego.
“This conduct represents a profound abuse of power that was clear and convincing evidence of dishonesty, weaponizing the police response system targeting a civilian woman and her child,” she said.
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.