Mesa cops tell Latino gathering of new policies

The Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens sponsored the 2008 Mesa Latino Town Hall on Saturday, featuring five different presentations regarding immigration and economic issues, including one on the public safety of Mesa residents.

Assistant police chief John Meza talked of new policies of the Mesa Police Department, while noting the department’s efforts to communicate on a more personal level with residents to assuage public safety concerns.

“It’s just a totally different way of policing,” Meza said. “And that’s how you really impact crime.”

Meza tried to ease residents’ concerns about crime on the streets by saying, “We are arresting a lot more people.”

Policing procedures are changing from the past, he said. Officers, he said, are required to report every incident, even if they don’t make an arrest.

“We don’t advocate and promote just going out to make arrests,” Meza said. “Through our system, we advocate going out to make a significant impact on arrests.”

The department is more interested in arresting the “ten-percenters, the 10 percent of the people committing 68 percent of the crimes,” he said.

Statistically, the new policies allow officers to arrest more individuals who are doing violent crimes, Meza said.

“Right now we’ve got 14 homicides in the city of Mesa. We’ve solved and arrested 13 of those cases,” he said.

The police department’s cooperation with various federal agencies has been producing significant results, Meza said. The main issue raised during the presentation was the police department’s impact on the community — a topic involving Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s much-debated actions in arresting illegal immigrants during raids.

Meza said it was important for his department to raise awareness in the community and to seek input.

“There is a lot of fear in the Hispanic community,” he said. “It’s a traditional thing: lack of trust, of fear, and just the unknown.”

Meza stressed the importance of establishing better relationships not only with the Hispanic community, but with every group of people.

“The immigration issue is a serious issue,” Meza said. “That’s a federal thing the federal government needs to help deal with. We try to focus on criminal activity.”

The issue boils down to the amount of resources that are available, he said. Lowering the amount of fear an individual has when reporting a crime will help greatly in reducing crime statistics, Meza said.

“If our community, whether it’s the Hispanic community or white community or whatever, is not reporting crimes, then we can’t do our jobs,” he said.

The department’s new policies are focusing on eliminating this fear by training officers.

Meza said department personnel will not “ask a person about his or her immigration status if they are a victim of a crime, or if they are a witness to a crime.”

“This does not mean we’re soft on immigration,” he said.

Denise Traves, a community partnership coordinator with the police department, said officers are making an effort to reach out in the community.

“We’re trying very hard to be out there to hear what’s going on,” she said.