It’s unclear how the Fresno Rotary Club chooses officers to honor in their annual Public Safety Officers Awards luncheon, but this year they picked Fresno Police Officer Gunter Meiss. It’s worth mentioning that Meiss has shot more people than any other police officer in the Fresno Police Department.
Meiss was one of five people honored by the Rotary Club of Fresno Monday with “public safety awards” for their “exceptional service in the line of duty”.
The Fresno Bee reported:
The club each year recognizes members of the law enforcement and public safety community as a way to thank them for service and heroism.
In a report from 2010, Meiss was one of 25 officers still on duty after repeat instances of violence.
A California Public Records Act Request uncovered a previously withheld list of 27 Fresno police officers involved in repeat shootings of civilians from 2002 through 2009, 25 of whom, according to an official with the Fresno Police Department, are still on active duty today. Of these 27 officers, four were involved in at least three separate shooting incidents over the same period. One officer, Michael Palomino, was involved in four shooting incidents. In the context of a statewide investigation focusing in on four major police departments, the Fresno Police Department stands out in scale. During the same period, the similarly sized Oakland Police Department had only five officers involved in repeat shootings, although Fresno enjoys a much lower crime rate.
Meiss, in 2010, topped the list of repeat shooters with 5 shootings on his record. Since then he was also involved in a shooting in 2012, bringing his total to 6.
According to the Community Alliance, Meiss was involved in officer involved shootings in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2012.
Mike Rhodes, former editor of the Community Alliance asked “Why are most FPD officers never involved in an OIS and someone like Gunter repeatedly kills suspects?”
Furthermore, why is an officer that repeatedly kills suspects rewarded for it?
Maybe fresno enjoys a lower crime rate than oakland because criminals understand that cops like this one will actually defend themselves before ending up as another casualty of political correctness?
You fail to mention if these shootings were good clean shoots. I can only surmise that they were clean cut cases otherwise he would probably have been removed from the force years ago.
I think this article paints a horrible picture of law enforcement officers based on metrics that are being applied incorrectly.
Were the shoots involving suspects? Or were they perpetrators. There is a clear definitive line between the two.
Perhaps you let a little bit too much opinion leak out in this article and not enough reporting with supporting facts.
Maybe a career in politics would better suit the author….see how that judgemental attitude sounds now?
Has Gunter Meiss ever been reprimanded for anything? Including before he came to Fresno?
Officer Lucero, one of the officers who murdered Freddy Centeno, was also named Police of the Year by Fresno PD for 2015.
You need to look at what job the officers had when these shootings occurred. Officer Meiss was on the Swat team as well as other elite units that went the worst of the worst criminals like serving warrants on 3 strikes offenders. Because of that stupid law, these people know that if they surrender, they go away for life so they are not going to surrender in most cases. Of course he is going to have more officer involved shootings than a normal cop on patrol. He was given this honor because he is a hero going after these people that the rest of us would be too afraid to confront.
Why questions are meaningless. The man is a murderer if a defenseless victim dies. Your in a police state now, people. Do you like all the guns and cops? No better than the thieves on wall street. This one needs to be taken off the streets, and convicted of his crimes. But where do we put a nation of thieves. in a prison state where the police lord the land, the bankers lord the streets. Ugly America. Wake UP now…seeocean.org and work with the natural, for the children are future now.