Mesa police chief touts improvements to department, reveals punishments

PHOENIX – Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista on Friday touted the success of departmental changes made after a series of videos showed officers appearing to engage in police brutality last year.

He also said that officers who didn’t follow department regulations in the incidents will be punished.

“After nine months of investigations, interviews, we have come to conclusion where we can publicly say that the police department … has found that the officers in question committed violations of our department rules and that we will be issuing out discipline,” Batista told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

Batista said he couldn’t go into specifics about the punishment because of state law. He said the officers are going through an appeals process that is handled outside the department and could take 6-8 months.

“At that point we can release the reports and the final conclusions on what kind of discipline was handed out,” he said.

He said the department has implemented changes to policies, hiring processes and training in the wake of several incidents that came to light in June 2018 after video became public.

He said use-of-force incidents have decreased more than 30 percent with the new procedures and training in place.

“I feel that is indicative of the fact that the programs are working and that the philosophy is beginning to take hold,” he said.

The disciplinary decisions were in response to an investigation overseen by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, a department press release said.

The release also said that an additional review being conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum would soon be completed, although no exact timeframe was given.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Ashley Flood contributed to this report.

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