[Music] hello I'm Mesa Police Chief Ken cost the Mesa Police Department is committed to protecting and serving everyone in our city during this pandemic we've all been affected in some way by the physical emotional or economic impact of Cova 19 across the country Asian American communities have been experiencing a decrease in business and even forms of racial aggression to better understand the needs and concerns of Asian American community here locally we've asked to hear from you today we will be addressing your questions and your concerns hi my name is Minnie Salas I'm the community engagement coordinator for the Mesa Police Department I'm officer Jim southern with Mesa Police Department I work with the bike unit and part time recruiting unit as well obviously everyone has been affected somehow someway by the coab in nineteen pandemic thousands of cases have been confirmed here in Arizona people have lost their jobs school districts have shut down so it's affecting everyone but today specifically we want to address the Asian American community here locally the first thing I want to talk about is that across the country we've seen a lot of racism and a lot of hate crimes here locally thankfully we haven't seen that do you think that's because they're not being reported and if that's the case what do you want to say to the community and also if it happens in the future you know how is the Mesa Police Department preparing for that so well Mesa that I think has a strong sense of community so we don't get a lot of this social unrest that happened in some other parts of the country and hopefully we won't - your question is is it being underreported I'm hoping not there's really no way to know because till it's reported we won't know about it and that's why if it does happen it's a partnership with the citizens and the police department so we need the information to be able to react to it and to be able to best serve the needs of partners in the community businesses and citizens one of the questions I got from one of the business owners was you know with the economy closed and people losing their jobs people are gonna have a really hard time purchasing groceries that they need you know to take care of their families so are you concerned at all about possible looting and how is the police department you know preparing for that so we have measures in place for this type of thing anyway you know our standard patrol response we have mobile field force unit so anytime they like a riot or something large comes up social unrest that unit is mobilized and we can respond directly to that and if there's going to be a large-scale issue there's also phases that command staff has put in place for a planned response for that to mobilize a large number of our officers get them on the road get them in uniform so we can show a larger presence and be directly dispatched to those areas that they need it I think that's probably one of the other concerns also is you know seeing that police presence is there more of it now because of what's happening the department's had the foresight to change the way we do business to meet the the needs of the community and to limit our exposure with daily contacts so we've increased our online reporting which frees up our officers to respond to more serious calls earlier this week we had a nonprofit organization from the Asian community that donated a lot of face masks for us because they kind of wanted to get ahead of the curve they see what was happening across the country and they want the community to see that they're making a donation that they're helping the community and one of the things that I heard one of the volunteers say to another police officer here was now that we kind of started this conversation with you it's easier for us to continue the conversation with police I think a lot of times people feel intimidated when they see police officers in uniform so what would you say to the Asian community about not waiting for an incident to happen but to approach you and kind of just start the conversation when they see you out in the community as a whole police officers love positive contacts you like those best oh absolutely absolutely you know so so much of what we deal with is negative you know you know and a very small percentage of the population is our problems you know that we have to deal with on a regular basis but but that's who we focus most on and when we have the opportunity to talk to our community members and business owners and and things like that and you know the best part of my day is when someone comes up and shows appreciation and we can have a regular conversation because we're all just people here and we're partners in the community so yes please approach us it's it's it's really good to get to know the people we work with in the community the people we serve and we can open up dialogue as to how we can best serve that and if there's ever a problem they'll feel comfortable approaching us there's there's no issue too small because the small issues turn into big issues so we can we can be working on a consistent basis to just improve to quality [Music]