Former Fresno Police Chief Ed Winchester, who led the department from 1993 to 2001, has died.
Winchester was hired in Fresno as a cadet in 1967, promoted to officer in 1970, and later held the ranks of specialist, lieutenant, captain and deputy chief before becoming chief, according to the Fresno Police Department.
He was 53 when he announced his retirement in May 2001.
“Chief Winchester served our community for 34 years with distinction and a servant’s heart,” the department wrote on social media Wednesday. “Our Fresno Police Department Family mourns the loss of Chief Winchester and sends its heartfelt condolences to his family while celebrating his life and honoring his leadership and the legacy he left behind.”
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, who succeeded Winchester for the role of police chief, called him a mentor and a friend in a statement Wednesday.
“Chief Winchester was a one-of-a-kind police chief who was tough on crime but had a heart of gold,” Dyer said.
He credited Winchester as the force behind a reduction in violent crime in Fresno in the mid-1990s. Dyer described the former police chief’s moves to create a Violent Crime Suppression Unit and deploy the department’s SWAT team to patrol neighborhoods as “courageous.”
Winchester has said that the last year of his time as chief represented a low point. Explosives were stolen from a department bunker, drugs and over $100,000 went missing from the evidence lockup, and an officer in the department was convicted of manslaughter.
The city plans to fly the flags at both City Hall and the Fresno Police Department at half-mast for the next seven days in honor of Winchester’s life, according to Dyer.
New Chief of Police Jerry Dyer and old Chief of Police Ed Winchester at the ceremony announcing the change in front of police headquarters on Wednesday afternoon July 18, 2001.