Mesa police union protests new badges
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Mike Sakal, Tribune

September 11, 2009 - 11:33PM

 
The Mesa Police Association's Nate Gafvert displays the new badge, left, the Mesa Police Department has switched over to showing a badge number that is shared with other officers.

Tim Hacker, TribuneA Mesa police union is complaining that new badges issued to officers have a numbering system that is confusing and makes it difficult for the public to identify an officer.

Slightly more than 800 Mesa sworn police officers last month received new silver badges - and gold ones for those with 20 or more years of service. The badges list the officer's rank at the top, such as "detective" or "sergeant," with a three-digit number on the bottom.

The problem, at least for members of the Mesa Police Association, is that the three-digit number is not unique and can be issued to six or seven different officers.

"People have an impression that a badge number is unique, but these don't mean anything," said Fabian Cota, MPA president. "It doesn't make sense to have all these badges with the same number. The badge is supposed to identify the person. If people want to complain about an officer or compliment them on something, they're going to look at the number of the badge and not bother looking at the rank. It's just problematic."

The old badges, which were used for about 25 years, did not have an officer identification number on them. Cota said he believed the new badges were going to have a unique officer ID number on them.

However, Bryan Soller, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police's Mesa Lodge 9, the other union representing officers, said the MPA is making the new badges an issue because Soller was the chairman of the committee that approved them.

"The numbers on the new badges have a tracking system through a city database that can identify the officer it belongs to," Soller said. "I don't see an issue with it. It's just a small group that is mad. We have more serious issues to worry about."

The Mesa City Council approved the department to get the new badges about six months ago after the officers wanted a change to a different-looking badge, Soller said.

Soller said an eight-member badge committee he chaired oversaw implementation of new badges. The group unanimously voted to implement former Chief George Gascón's recommendation of featuring a tracking system for the badges through a database, instead of using an identification number.

Soller also said that they wanted to keep an officer's identification number off the badges for safety reasons because officers call in their ID numbers to dispatch to let them know they are safe after responding to an incident. Someone who harmed an officer could call in if the ID was visible on the badge.

Mesa has a policy of requiring officers to give their name and ID number when asked by members of the public, he said.

"If the badge number is 005 and silver, the database says 005-S," Soller said. "If the badge number is 005 and gold, the database is 005-G. If someone does call in to complain or say anything about an officer, all it would take to identify them is to go to the database, look up the names under the badge number and see who was working at that date and time in that area and the officer would be identified."

But Cota contends that he believed the three-digit code was a prototype number when he viewed them early on in the process.

"When we saw the badges with the three numbers on the bottom, we thought it was a prototype," Cota said. "It only makes sense that you have your officer identification number on the badges."

Officers who are upset over the new badge numbering system recently launched a Web page, www.mesabadgebuffoonery.wordpress.com, with a top 10 list poking fun at the new badge system. The site also features a link to a YouTube.com video showing the famed Western movie scene in the "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," where Humphrey Bogart demands to know whether the men about to rob him are bandits or lawmen as they claim. When Bogart asks to see their badges, a bandit replies, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges - I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

Cota said when he complained about the badges to Vicki Myers, the acting police chief, she said she was not aware of the furor it was creating and told him to take the issue up the chain of command.

"I just think someone screwed up and doesn't want to say anything about it," Cota said. "We're considering looking into switching to badges with our five-digit identification numbers on them and looking into the costs of it and then putting it to a vote."

The badge change would have cost the city about $45,000, but enough funds were raised by officers buying their old badges for $40 apiece, so the city footed slightly less than $2,000 of the total costs for them through California-based Sun Badges, according to Soller.

Comments:

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 silentmajority wrote:
this is the most ridiculous story that I have every seen in my life. As a police officer in Mesa, I can say that I in no way agree with these morons for bringing this story to the Tribune. Between both of the so-called unions at the Mesa PD, it is like watching an episode of the keystone cops. You make us all look like garbage with this one MPA, and your stupid website is about as immature as you can get. If you have time to do all of this, maybe you should find some time to go out and fight some crime like us real cops!
9/12/2009 2:43:12 AM
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 retiredcop wrote:
well said silentmajority. This is a non issue. Go do your jobs.
9/12/2009 4:46:53 AM
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 hiskoledukatd wrote:
JUST SHOWS THE NEW LIBERAL, LEFT-WING SOCIALISM THAT IS TAKING OVER THE MESA POLICE DEPARTMENT.
WHERE I WORKED EVER EMPLOYEE HAD A BADGE NUMBER AND IF THE PUBLIC ASKED FOR IT = WE GAVE IT TO THEM SO THEY HAD SOME WAY OF HOLDING US ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR ACTION...GOOD OR BAD.

NOW MESA MAYOR SCOTT "SANCTUARY CITY" SMITH AND HIS "RUBBER STAMP" CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND THE INTERIM MESA CHIEF OF POLICE WANT TO ..."DENY"...THE CITIZENS OF MESA FROM HAVING A WAY TO IDENTIFY THE MESA POLICE OFFICER THAT THEY WANT TO COMPLIMENT OR COMPLAIN ABOUT.
CAN YOU IMAGINE IF SOMETHING SERIOUS OCCURS AND A MESA POLICE OFFICER MUST BE IDENTIFIED IN COURT USING THIS SYSTEM WHILE THE DEFENSE SHOOTS HOLES IN THE "TRACKING SYSTEM & DATA BASE".

A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER TAKES PRIDE IN HIS BADGE NUMBER..THIS IDENTIFIES HIM OR HER TO THE PUBLIC THAT THEY SERVE. THE BADGE NUMBER KEEPS THE GOOD APPLES = GOOD...AND HELPS GET THE "BAD APPLES = FIRED".

STOP THE "SOCIALISM" IN LAW ENFORCEMENT NOW.

MAKE "INDIVIDUALS" ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTION....NOT THE WHOLE......"VILLAGE".
9/12/2009 5:32:39 AM
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 tkotko wrote:
Al least we're paying them to get dressed.
9/12/2009 5:56:31 AM
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 hounddog wrote:
There's not enough cheese to go with this whine. Get a life.
9/12/2009 6:26:43 AM
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 geepers wrote:
It seems to me like Sgt Fabio Cota has TOO MUCH time on his hands and needs to get to work doing what we are paying him to do...his job!!!
9/12/2009 6:30:04 AM
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 mrglib wrote:
Is Cota still in an admin/budget and research whatever do no actual police work job or did they shove him back into patrol?

Pay attention folks, whenever the police unions start saying that they don't have enough officers and are losing more everyday it's because there are too many non patrol assignments that are filled by sworn officers that don't need to be. Here are two alone, Soller and Cota who are fulfilling make work desk jobs making sergeant pay.
9/12/2009 6:45:13 AM
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 jollyrancher wrote:
Wouldn't it be a hoot if all officers with the same number were assigned to the same crime scene..

You couldn't tell who was coming or who was going!
9/12/2009 7:15:07 AM
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 azwinds wrote:
"Mine's bigger than yours!"

"I know you are but what am I?"

"I'm made of rubber, your made of glue, whatever you say to me bounces off me and sticks to you!"

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"Yes you did!" "No I didn't!" "Yes you did......!"

Maybe with slogans like this I could become a whining, crybaby, MPA member.

I'm sure Mesa PD has bigger issues to worry about than a numbering system on a badge. Since the MPA can't figure out a solution to possible identity issues, I will provide one......read the officer's name tag. Problem solved.
9/12/2009 7:39:59 AM
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 deathsniper wrote:
@silentmajority - you are right, the story is ridiculous. But if you or any other cop stops me for any reason I want a way to individually identify you.

You are a public servant and paid a salary by the tax payers you serve. We all have a right to know your name, rank and badge number and you have no right to hide it from the public.

Typically I am very supportive of LEO's, but this is not one of those times.
9/12/2009 7:58:02 AM
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