Mesa Police Department

The Mesa Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency in Mesa, Arizona. The department employs 1,202 police officers. The department is headed by Chief Ken Cost. History The Mesa police department has existed since 1880. 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, 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.