June 14, 2008 - 6:11PM
Mesa police to check background of all arrested
Katie McDevitt, Tribune
Mesa police officers on Monday will begin conducting criminal history checks on everyone they arrest, even those who are cited and released. Police officials believe the new mandate will give officers more knowledge on suspects' background.

But some patrol officers say the checks can take more than 30 minutes each and will take them off the streets for too long.

Mesa police Assistant Chief John Meza said the new process is "good practice" and that while some officers already conduct regular criminal history checks, many don't.

"This is a way to establish and get officers to really know, OK, I have somebody, who am I really dealing with?" Meza said. "If I have John Doe I might see he's an investigative lead on a sexual assault case."

But some patrol officers worry that the process of doing the checks is too slow. The department has only a handful of computers to conduct the checks, and the city's records department is already bogged down, they say.

Several officers said that booking prisoners into jail already takes officers' time, so the extra research will only add to the delay.

According to a memo sent out departmentwide on June 3, the only exception to the new procedure is for minor traffic citations. Officers are currently undergoing training on the process of conducting the criminal history checks, which go through an FBI search and an internal department records search.

"Although this process will take additional time, it is intended to give the officer additional information to aid them with their investigation," the memo states. "The additional information may lead to more interviews about other pending cases."

The criminal background checks do not relate to immigration status.

Fabian Cota, president of the Mesa Police Association, said the new mandate is a good idea, but it needs to be efficient.

"It would just be nice if we had the infrastructure and processes to do it the way it should be done," Cota said. "There's much more effective ways of doing it."

Cota said that anything over 20 minutes to do a criminal history check is too much time.

Still, Meza said the process is fast and that the records department has been notified and is preparing for the change. And Bryan Soller, the president of Mesa's other union, the Fraternal Order of Police, said criminal history checks on everybody are important so "somebody doesn't slip through the cracks."

"We've made mistakes in the past where people have been let go," Soller said. "Is our equipment adequate? It could be improved and it could be updated, but it's a budget issue and we have to make do with what they have."






http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/118545