DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF RELEASED ON OWN RECOGNIZANCE BY FEDERAL JUDGE
FRESNO - On Thursday agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Sacramento Field Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) San Francisco Field Division arrested Fresno Deputy Police Chief Keith Foster (51), after a year long investigation into a drug conspiracy.
The investigation revealed that Foster and several accomplices had been distributing oxycodone, heroin and marijuana. Foster and five others have been arrested for distribution and possession of these substances and more arrests appear likely in the case.
Agents from the FBI and ATF made the announced with Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer by their side, however Dyer was not made aware of the investigation until after the arrests were made. Foster was just one of the six Fresno residents arrested for alleged violations of federal law related to their roles in a drug conspiracy.
Foster was hired as a Police Officer Recruit with the Fresno Police Department in December 1986 and he promoted his way through the ranks of Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain, to Deputy Chief. He has been a Deputy Chief since January 2007 and has been the Division Commander of the Patrol Division since March 2013.
Currently, Foster will be on paid administrative leave while FPD conducts an internal investigation into these alleged criminal and policy violations. Deputy Chief Foster has been in his current position for eight years. There are three other deputy chiefs in the Fresno PD. Foster’s duties were to oversee patrol and each of the cities four policing districts. For the time being he has been stripped of his department issued gun and peace officer powers.
Federal agents had been wiretapping Foster and his accomplices for several months and uncovered evidence that drugs were being distributed, even though the suspects attempted to relay the details of these transactions in thinly veiled codes that were easy enough to decipher by agents.
Foster was in the custody of the Madera County Department of Corrections Thursday and Friday. No booking photo of the Deputy Chief was made available on the departments inmate inquiry page. Foster was in protective custody and not around other prisoners.
Ironiclly Foster's younger brother, Patrick Foster, was a jailer at the Madera DOC in 2012 when he got in some hot water for lying to Clovis Police about being a victim of a carjacking after police arrested him for a burglary at Kohl's Department Store in the Sierra Vista Mall. The younger Foster later pled guilty to a misdemeanor.
Foster and his family are well known in both the Fresno community and police department. His father served for many years and a subsection is named after him.
The FBI and ATF are conducting this investigation and have requested that the Fresno Pollice Department refrain from providing statements to the media regarding this case thus not to taint the outcome in anyway and provide for a fair and impartial judicial process.
Foster and the other defendants appeared before a Federal magistrate Friday afternoon. Foster was released on his own recognizance while the other suspects remained in custody.
On the arrest of his deputy chief, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer stated, "this is a very sad day for the Fresno Police Department, the citizens of Fresno, the law enforcement profession, and for me personally. Our department will continue to serve in a professional manner and to do all we can to maintain the trust and confidence of this community."
“The message I want to send to everyone, when we place this badge on our chest, it’s a badge of honor. There’s a lot of responsibility that goes along with it. It is important that we do everything we can to maintain and enhance the trust our citizens have in us. When things of this nature happen it does erode that trust.”, Dyer added.
