Chief of Police Erskine G. Fish

Chief Erskine G. Fish served as Chief of the North Sacramento Police Department for seven years before that agency later merged with the Sacramento Police Department. On August 11, 1935, Chief Fish responded to a burglar call and encountered two fleeing burglars. In a confrontation described as an almost Western-style shootout, he was shot and killed.

Chief Fish led by example, responding personally to calls for service and paying the ultimate price in that pursuit. He is honored by the Sacramento Police Officers Association and memorialized at the California Peace Officers Memorial Foundation. His legacy reminds the department that leadership in law enforcement sometimes demands everything.