Jerry Dyer

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Jerry Dyer

|image = Jerry Dyer 2021 official portrait.jpg

|caption = Dyer in 2021

|office = 26th Mayor of Fresno

|term_start = January 5, 2021

|term_end =

|predecessor = Lee Brand

|successor =

|office1 = 21st Chief of Police of Fresno

|2blankname1 = Mayor

|2namedata1 = Alan Autry
Ashley Swearengin
Lee Brand

|term_start1 = August 1, 2001

|term_end1 = October 16, 2019

|predecessor1 = Ed Winchester

|successor1 = Andy Hall

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|5|3}}

|birth_place = Fresno, California, U.S.

|death_date =

|death_place =

|party = Republican

|spouse = {{marriage|Diane Gonzales|1980}}

|education = California State University, Fresno (BS)
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (MS)

}}

Jerry P. Dyer (born May 3, 1959) is an American politician and former law enforcement officer. He is the 26th and current mayor of Fresno, California. Previously, he served as the chief of the Fresno Police Department.

Life and career

Dyer was born in Fresno to Donald Dyer and Anna Rackley on May 3, 1959. The Dyers relocated to Fowler, California, in 1964. He attended and graduated from Fowler High School in 1977. While in high school, Dyer played on the varsity football, baseball, and basketball teams. After high school, Dyer joined the College of the Sequoias police officer training academy and was sworn in as an officer of the Fresno Police Department on May 1, 1979, under then Police Chief George K. Hansen. Later his father and sister, Diana, would join Jerry in at the Fresno Police Department with his father previously serving in the Madera County Sheriffs Department. He served as a police officer in the Fresno Police Department for 22 years while rising through the ranks before being named chief of police in 2001.{{cite web|last=Hoagland|first=Doug|last2=Hostetter|first2=George|title=The transformation of Jerry Dyer|url=http://www.fresnobee.com/localnews/story/0,1724,284162,00.html|work=The Fresno Bee|date=July 22, 2001|access-date=January 25, 2025|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20010726113018/http://www.fresnobee.com:80/localnews/story/0,1724,284162,00.html|archive-date=July 26, 2001|url-status=dead}}

In 1985, Dyer was alleged to be involved in an extra-marital relationship with a 16 year old minor.{{Cite web|date=December 7, 2019|title=Did Jerry Dyer have sex with underage teen? Fresno voters deserve to know|url=https://www.fresnobee.com/article238122679.html|website=The Fresno Bee|access-date=March 16, 2025|url-access=limited|url-status=live|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20191209025832/https://www.fresnobee.com/article238122679.html|archive-date=December 9, 2019}} The accusations were never made public, and internal investigations led to no criminal charges against Dyer. According to an anonymous police source, Dyer admitted to having sex with the minor. In a 2001 Fresno Bee interview, Dyer refused to talk about the allegations, replying, “All I can tell you is that the relationships that I have had outside of my marriage, when I was a young man, have been dealt with. ... God’s forgiven me. My wife’s forgiven me. This department’s forgiven me and looked into a lot of things in my past.”{{Cite web|last=Hoagland|first=Doug|date=July 22, 2001|title=Cops twice probed allegation Dyer had affair with girl, 16|url=http://www.fresnobee.com/localnews/story/0,1724,284163,00.html|website=The Fresno Bee|access-date=January 25, 2025|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20010726113016/http://www.fresnobee.com:80/localnews/story/0,1724,284163,00.html|archive-date=July 26, 2001|url-status=dead}}

In 2011, deputy chiefs Robert Nevarez and Sharon Shaffer{{Cite web|last=Beale|first=Andrew|date=March 29, 2019|title=The Chief: The Remarkable — Sometimes Shocking — Career of Fresno's Top Cop|url=https://www.kqed.org/news/11736095/the-chief-the-remarkable-sometimes-shocking-career-of-fresnos-top-cop|access-date=2020-11-10|website=KQED}} filed a lawsuit against Dyer. He was accused of creating a hostile work environment in the Fresno Police Department through making several racially and sexually insensitive comments. Fresno City Hall settled the lawsuit, paying $200,000 collectively to Nevarez and Shaffer.{{cite court|litigants=Robert Nevarez and Sharon Shaffer v. City of Fresno; Jerry Dyer|court=Civil|reporter=Simpson, Alan|opinion=08CECG01962|pinpoint=|date=2008-06-09|url=https://publicportal.fresno.courts.ca.gov/FRESNOPORTAL/Home/WorkspaceMode?p=0|quote=|access-date=2020-11-10}} Dyer also was questioned by the media for neglectful supervision of his chief deputy who was convicted in 2017 of conspiring to distribute heroin and marijuana of which Dyer claimed he was unaware.

Dyer served as police chief for 18 years. He ran in the March 2020 election to succeed Lee Brand as mayor. He received a majority of the vote, bypassing the need for a runoff election.{{cite web|last=Sheehan|first=Tim|url=https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article241106011.html|title= Jerry Dyer will be Fresno’s next mayor. He’ll start work quickly on transition process |work= The Fresno Bee|date=March 11, 2020|access-date=January 25, 2025|url-status=live|url-access=limited}} Dyer is the second former Fresno police chief to run for mayor and be elected after Mayor Truman G. Hart.

Dyer and his wife, Diane, have two children.

Electoral history

{{Election box begin no party no change |title=2020 Fresno mayoral election{{cite web |title=Results of the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election {{!}} County of Fresno |url=https://www.co.fresno.ca.us/departments/county-clerk-registrar-of-voters/election-information/election-results/results-of-march-3-2020-presidential-primary-election |website=www.co.fresno.ca.us |publisher=Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters |access-date=14 September 2020 |archive-date=May 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527095130/https://www.co.fresno.ca.us/departments/county-clerk-registrar-of-voters/election-information/election-results/results-of-march-3-2020-presidential-primary-election |url-status=dead }}}}

{{Election box winning candidate no party no change

|candidate = Jerry Dyer

|votes = 50,914

|percentage = 51.56

}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change

|candidate = Andrew Janz

|votes = 39,430

|percentage = 39.93

}}

{{Election box candidate no party no change

|candidate = Floyd D. Harris Jr.