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A hero among us: Nino Amirfar
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Jeffrey R. Lewis

To know retired police chief Nino Amirfar is an honor.  To work alongside him was a gift, and to spend time talking with him, sharing ideas, listening, and creating solutions is nothing short of an educational dream. 

Nino Amirfar is a man of great ideas. He is well-grounded and intensely focused on ensuring Turlock's public safety while bridging the gap between young people, voters, and the police who serve their community.

Nino grew up in Ceres and never forgot the importance of where he came from.  He grew into a man of the people -- someone determined to build connections between community leaders, activists, radicals, our new Marxists, teenagers, women, and children. He did it by listening to people. 

Starting as a police resource officer in the Ceres public schools, he was determined to help students and faculty understand who police officers were as human beings – how they thought and how much they had in common with the people they served. He was happy to answer all questions that students could think of.  His goal: bring police officers into the schools to change the perceptions young people held by showing them that police were regular people, just like them.

But Nino Amirfar was never a regular person.  Indeed, he was that exceptional public servant whose ethics and morals set him apart from other public servants.

Nino became a hero without ever trying.  As police chief, he fought poverty every day, caring for the homeless, drug-dependent children and adults, and anyone else in need.

Every day, Chief Amirfar and his officers and staff put their lives on the line, tackling Turlock’s mounting gang crisis and the growing presence of illegal narcotics. They were determined to rescue young girls and boys from being trafficked into sexual slavery. Failure was never an option. 

Danger comes in many forms, many of which the average citizen does not even know exists. But in Turlock, we were always safe because of Chief Amirfar’s leadership.

Chief Amirfar served as a selfless risk-taker focused on his community.  He should be remembered for his courageous acts and selfless endeavors, as someone who always spoke the truth, even when people did not want to hear it.  He spoke from the heart, with unquestionable integrity.


 

 

When you see Nino on the streets of Turlock, please take a minute to thank him for his service and his commitment to excellence. 

— Jeffrey Lewis is the President and CEO of Legacy Health Endowment.