MESA, Ariz. - The Mesa Police Department released its response to federal recommendations aimed at improving community relations with police departments nationwide.
The President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing was formed in 2015 and issued more than 150 recommendations on how to improve relations between police and civilians.
Mesa's version of the task force's report addresses every recommendation individually and explains what the department has or hasn't done to address them.
"If we had trust before, we can get it back," police chief John Meza said.
Meza pointed to the department's hiring practices -- increasing the number of minority recruits to about 48 percent -- as well as the department's community involvement as things the agency does well.
But Meza said he knows it's not easy enough for civilians to find police statistics, such as the demographics of the people police pull over or the number of complaints against an officer and whether they were validated or not.
