Assistant Ken Cost is named interim police chief in Mesa

Mesa Police Assistant Chief Ken Cost will temporarily head the department following Chief Ramon Batista’s abrupt resignation Monday.

Cost, who has been with the department for nearly 25 years, will start his position as interim chief immediately, city officials announced Tuesday.

“I am honored to be asked to serve in this position and especially to continue to work in and for this community I love,” Cost said. “I am also humbled to lead and to work side-by-side with the amazing men and women of the Mesa Police Department in protecting and serving the residents of Mesa.”

Cost previously served in “every rank” leading up to his appointment to assistant chief in 2018, heading up the patrol operations bureau. His past assignments include patrol, gang unit, street crimes, community action team and the U.S. Marshals Task Force.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from California State University, Fullerton and will be completing his master’s degree in criminal justice administration next year.

Mesa City Manager Chris Brady, who is chiefly responsible for the hiring and firing of the police chief, voiced his full support for Cost.

“Appointing Assistant Chief Cost to this position was an easy decision based on his extensive law enforcement experience, knowledge of and relationships with the community and tenure with Mesa police,” Brady said. “I am fully confident in his ability to lead this department professionally and with the utmost integrity, transparency and commitment.”

The department will soon begin the process of finding a permanent chief, according to city spokesman Steven Wright.

The interim appointment of Cost comes the day after the city announced Batista unexpectedly resigned from the position.

City officials said Batista, who served as chief since 2017, gave his notice of intent to leave the department to “pursue personal interests and other professional opportunities.”

Batista was the third Mesa chief in the past nine years.

Cost is coming into the leadership position as the department is still recovering from multiple years of scandal and turmoil.

Batista was the chief during the highprofile murder trial of Philip “Mitch” Brailsford, a former Mesa police officer acquitted of killing an unarmed man in 2016.

A Maricopa County jury found Brailsford not guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting of 26-year-old Daniel Shaver, who was unarmed and on his knees begging for his life when the officer shot him five times in the hallway of a Mesa hotel.

Batista quickly went about making changes aimed at installing a different culture in the department and rebuilding trust with the community. During his tenure, city officials said the department saw significant changes in training, especially in use-of-force instruction and de-escalation techniques.

The city also saw its lowest violent crime rates ever reported since tracking begin in the 1970s.

Multiple officers previously told The Arizona Republic their support of Batista wavered after he publicly condemned multiple Mesa officers involved in two use-of-force incidents.

One video showed officers kneeing and punching an unarmed man repeatedly. In the other, two officers were seen roughing up a 15-year-old armed-robbery suspect after the boy was handcuffed.

Batista called the actions unacceptable and pledged change during a news conference in June 2018.

Then, in June, the two unions cast a no confidence vote against Batista, citing low morale and a toxic work environment. Brady said Batista’s departure was unrelated to the no confidence vote. police