Residents press Mesa council on privacy and oversight of police ASU crime-analysis amendment

Members of the public urged city officials to provide more transparency and oversight before the council approved an amendment to the Mesa Police Department’s crime-analysis program with Arizona State University (ASU).

Reggie Braun, who identified himself as "district 4, data engineer risk analysis," said the amendment "alters the analytical data infrastructure of the Mesa Police Department" and accused the city of maintaining "hidden data silos." He urged staff to "publish [a] fiscal audit trail before approving intergovernmental and local amendments," and said he had received slow responses to a public-records request he filed in December (he described a 174-day wait).

A second commenter asked how the program would protect data and minors if school cameras — the speaker cited a figure of roughly 5,000 school cameras — were integrated, and whether in-house analysts should do the work rather than outsourcing to ASU. The speaker asked the city manager to present a full public report at the next council meeting. Mayor Freeman said the police chief would come forward to address questions and offered to follow up with speakers after the meeting.

City staff and the mayor repeatedly told speakers to keep comments on-topic where agenda rules apply; staff characterized several issues raised as outside the scope of the fee and zoning items under discussion. The transcript records the citizens’ requests for detailed public accounting and clearer data-protection guarantees but does not contain a technical response from the police chief or a vote specifically recorded on amendments to program governance in the meeting's public record.