Chief Neil G. Dadian began his law enforcement career with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office in 1979 as a reserve deputy sheriff through the Fresno State Criminology 108 program and was appointed as a fulltime deputy sheriff in 1981.  During his career Chief Dadian rose to the rank of Sheriff’s Captain and served in a variety of assignments, retiring in 2013.

While at the Sheriff’s Office, some of Chief Dadian’s command assignments included:

•    Patrol Area Commander

•    Patrol Tac Team

•    K-9

•    Court Security

•    Extraditions and Prisoner Transportation

•    Civil

•    Office of the Undersheriff

•    Communications

•    Air Support

•    Multi Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium (M.A.G.E.C) 

•    Training

•    Reserve Coordinator

•    Jail Programs and Services 

Chief Dadian also served on the SWAT team for 14 years, eight of those years as the SWAT and Crisis Negotiations team commander and was awarded the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office Distinguished Serve Medal for his SWAT/CNT service.  

Chief Dadian was an in-service instructor at the Sheriff’s Office and is currently an instructor at Fresno City College Police Academy and adjunct professor of criminology at California State University, Fresno.  

Chief Dadian has worked as a Subject Matter Expert with California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training in developing curriculum and producing training videos on Court Security, Prisoner Transportation, SWAT, and Active Shooter.  

Chief Dadian has presented a number of critical incident debriefs to several law enforcement agencies and professional organizations including the California Association of Tactical Officers, California Peace Officers Association, and several local agencies, associations, and tactical teams. 

Chief Dadian holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in criminology from Fresno State.  

Chief Dadian’s career spans across parts of five decades and in January of 2015 he was appointed as the Chief of Police for the City of Kingsburg Police Department.