By Melissa Montalvo
The Fresno Bee
FRESNO, Calif. — Mindy Casto made history in becoming Fresno’s first woman police chief.
Casto served as interim chief since June 2024 following the investigation and resignation former chief Paco Balderrama . On Thursday, city leaders removed the interim tag and named Casto the department’s 24th police chief.
“My entire adult life has been dedicated to the department and the people living and working in Fresno,” Casto said Thursday.
Casto is no stranger to the Fresno Police Department . She began her career in Fresno in the mid-1990s and has since risen through the department’s ranks.
“I’ve been given so much by this community and this department, and I know that much is and will be expected of me, and I plan to live up to those expectations,” she said.
Here’s what we know about Fresno’s new police chief.
Who is Mindy Casto?
Casto is a veteran of the Fresno police force and was the highest ranking woman in the department in her previous role as deputy chief.
According to a March 25, 2022 post on the Fresno Police Department Facebook page, Casto fell in love with pursuing a career in law enforcement during a ride-along with Fresno police when she was 16.
She became a cadet in 1996 and was hired with the department in 1997, the post said. She became a sergeant in 2003 after she was promoted by Mayor Jerry Dyer , who was police chief at the time.
She was promoted to lieutenant in 2015 — and at the time was the only woman serving as lieutenant in the department. Three years later, she was promoted again to captain and then deputy chief in August 2022 .
City data analyzed by The Bee in 2019 found that 76% of the Fresno Police Department was male.
Casto told The Bee in 2019 that being a woman affects how she interacts with her male colleagues. She keeps her workplace relationships professional while sometimes her male colleagues do activities together like golfing or socializing. “I’m not going to hang out and drink beer with them,” she said at the time.
According to Transparent California, Casto’s husband, Steve, is a sergeant at the department as of 2022.
In 2022, Balderrama pledged to bring more gender diversity the force, promising that 30% of officers will be women by 2030. Women make up 12% of sworn officers in the country, and 3% of leadership roles.
Casto said she’s also committed to making the department a welcoming place for women officers.
In July 2024 , a former officer who was one of three Black women Fresno police officers, filed a lawsuit saying she was subject to sexual harassment and racial discrimination in a hostile work environment.
But on Thursday Casto credited Dyer’s leadership and the women who came before her for creating a culture that has made it really easy for her to compete for promotions and assignments based on merit.
“The culture at Fresno PD has never made me feel for a moment that that’s been a burden,” she said.
“So I hope that that’s a good example to the women of our department. It’s a good culture for women who want to promote and compete in special units,” she said.
Casto previously served on the board of directors of the Marjaree Mason Center domestic violence prevention shelter, which honored her a Professional Woman of the Year in 2022. As of February, she is no longer listed as a board member on the nonprofit’s website.
In 2022, she was also chosen as Woman of the Year by District 6 Councilmember Garry Bredefeld.
City declared Mindy Casto Day in 2022
Shortly after her promotion to deputy chief, the city of Fresno, Mayor Jerry Dyer and the Fresno City Council declared Sept. 1, 2022 as “Mindy Casto Day.“
“I probably had the privilege of knowing Mindy the longest because I knew her before she actually came on the police department,” Dyer said at the proclamation. “And the ride-along, I think she’ll say, is the first-ride along she did was with my sister, who’s a Fresno police officer.”
“It is inspiring to see women like you, especially in law enforcement, where we see far and few,” said former Councilmember Esmeralda Soria following the 2022 proclamation. “What is amazing and remarkable about your story is that you stayed in it, and that you have demonstrated courage and leadership, and that now there’s a lot of little girls in this community that can say, ‘Hey, I can be a deputy chief in this great city.’”
“This department and this city has been so good to me over the past 25 plus years, and I look forward to continuing serving the community (and) everybody in it,” Casto said in 2022.
—
Fresno Bee Reporter Thaddeus Miller contributed to this report.
©2025 The Fresno Bee. Visit fresnobee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.