Mesa police focus on crime, not illegal immigrants

by The Associated Press on Apr 16, 2009, under Local, Special

Mesa Police Chief George Gascon says the use of officers to enforce immigration laws is a waste of resources.

At a news conference Wednesday to discuss the arrests of 173 felons, Gascon says the city’s police department has kept its focus on local crime instead of illegal immigrants and Mesa’s violent crime has seen a steady decline since 2006.

But Gascon says that trend might not be able to continue if police officers are diverted to immigration duties.

For the first three months of 2009, violent and property crimes in Mesa decreased 13 percent compared with the same three-month period last year, according to police figures.

There also have been no homicides so far this year — the fewest number at this point into the year since 1988.

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

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For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

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