New police interference city code advances

Nov. 5—In the battle over what constitutes unlawful interference with police officers and what is protected speech, the City of Mesa is considering adding a new tool to limit what law enforcement officials say is a rise in bystanders interfering with police activity — including citizens filming police.

At Mesa City Council's Oct. 27 Public Safety Committee meeting, council members on the committee heard a presentation from police leadership on a proposed new section of City Code that would explicitly prohibit police interference.

Assistant Chief Ed Wessing told the committee the department "has seen an increase in police interference in recent years, including incidents that involve filming officers from close proximity."

But unlike other Valley cities, Wessing said, Mesa does not have code prohibiting police interference.

"There is a code that prohibits obstructing those enforcing livestock and large animal regulations and interfering with those enforcing animal control regulations," but nothing on police interference, he said.

Wessing acknowledged that the code was responding in part to issues associated with filming.

But he said, "I want to make it very clear the position of the police department is that we support the constitutionally protected right to filming police officers in public.

"The goal of this new ordinance is really to protect the integrity of investigations, and most importantly, the safety of our officers and those that they're dealing with on a particular call, while still allowing for expression of constitutionally protected rights, including filming of officers," Wessing said.

The exact language proposed last week is: "It is unlawful for any person to willfully hinder, resist, delay, obstruct or prevent a peace officer in the discharge of their official duties, or refuse to obey any lawful order issued by a peace officer engaged in the discharge of their official duties.

"A person shall not be in violation of this section based on using words alone."

The new code would apply to interfering with any "peace officer," including animal control and code officers.

According to presentation materials, the proposed code is similar to that used by Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe and Glendale, and those ordinance "have been in effect for many years and have not been enjoined or ruled unconstitutional."

Wessing said that recently state legislation that went into effect Sept. 24 makes it a class 2 misdemeanor to knowingly disobey a reasonable verbal order to remain off the premises of police activity, but the state law only applies to activity at a "possible crime scene."

The language in the state law doesn't "address civil violations such as traffic stops, collision investigations, civil city code violations and other non-criminal matters," Wessing said.

The city code Mesa PD is proposing would make failure to obey reasonable commands in these non-criminal situations a class III, or lowest level, misdemeanor.

Council members Mark Freeman and Kevin Thompson spoke favorably of the proposed code during discussion.

"I want to make sure that whatever we do, our officers have the ability to protect themselves," Thompson said. "If this does that while still protecting people's First Amendment rights, I'm cool with it. First and foremost is officer safety."

"I see good in this," Freeman said. "There's a lot of people affected by a crime scene or whatever it might be, and our officers, they form that forcefield around that scene, and they protect it."

The three council members on the committee, Freeman, Thompson and council member David Luna, voted unanimously to approve the proposed language and forward it to the city council.