Mesa Police Department


The Mesa Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency in Mesa, Arizona. The department employs 1,202 law enforcement officers. The department is headed by Chief Ken Cost.

History

Mesa seems to have had a law enforcement agency by 1913, when the town marshal, Smith Peterson was murdered in November of that year. Since then, two other Mesa policemen have died in the line of duty, both in traffic accidents.
In 1991, local newspapers reported on a wide-ranging sex scandal in the department. Various police officers seem to have been involved in the molestation of children and using their wives as bait to blackmail other members of the department.
In 2016, a Mesa Police Officer, Philip Brailsford, shot Daniel Shaver five times and killed him in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Mesa, Arizona while Shaver was on his hands and knees and following confusing and contradictory orders by the police. Brailsford was charged with second-degree murder and a lesser manslaughter charge and found not guilty by a jury. Prosecutors argued the shooting was unjustified. Brailsford was reinstated in August 2018. Over a month later, he was granted retirement on medical grounds, as well as a pension of $2,500 per month.

Organization

The department operates four stations;