Mesa police chief will face hard road

"Do you feel lucky, well do ya?"

Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry

Help Wanted: Mesa police chief.

To read the city's brochure you'd think Mesa's new chief will be basking in the sunshine of a Mesa wonderland. It's your typical city hall, group-hug, feel-good production.

What the brochure doesn't say is Mesa is teetering on financial instability. The cash cows that were supposed to pump revenue and jobs into the city haven't materialized, future projects may be put on hold, and what little the city has left could be looking for greener pastures.

It also doesn't tell how the new chief will be the city's 11th in 29 years. The Mesa Police Department will have had eight permanent and three interim chiefs with average tenure of 2.6 years since 1980 when I joined the department. The interims were in power long enough to leave their fingerprints and management style all over the place. During the same time frame Chandler and Gilbert have had only three chiefs, Phoenix has had four, Scottsdale has had six and Tempe has had five. Mesa has had five chiefs just since 2005.

Not being able to keep a chief around hasn't helped. Prior to the last chief arriving in 2006, Mesa was known as the murder capital of the East Valley and as a haven for drug dealers and gangs. It's also caused morale problems.

The pretty brochure also neglected to mention the department has two police unions representing officers that fight constantly for power and attention from City Hall.

Not only will the new chief have to deal with two unions, city hall politics, crime and a shrinking budget and work force, he or she also get to deal with a couple of county and state elected officials who think they know what's best for the state's third-largest city. These popular politicians have publicly flexed their muscles and put Mesa's elected leadership between a rock and a hard spot over immigration enforcement and how city law enforcement is supposed to function.

Even though Mesa police arrested more illegal immigrants than the county sheriff and lowered serious crime by 33 percent, to hear the politicos tell it, Mesa is a crime-ridden sanctuary city and elected officials had better shape up when it comes to immigration or be prepared to be deported from office in the next election.

Vice Mayor Kyle Jones summed it up at a going-away party for the last chief. His comments were quoted in a July 24 Tribune editorial: "Unfortunately, there has been politics and egos outside of the community that have tried to influence how we handle law enforcement here. That has been a challenge for us. Unfortunately, we have had to do things differently than we wanted to do."

Mesa's last chief surpassed all expectations, was supported by both unions and Valley police chiefs, and still had the welcome mat yanked right out from underneath him.

It's not all bad news. The Mesa Police Department has good cops and civilian employees who have shown that with great leadership they can produce exceptional results.

Now if Mesa can just get another good chief and keep this one. If Chandler, Gilbert, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe can keep a chief, why can't Mesa? Mesa's next police chief will need to be a great leader and very, very lucky.

Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net.