MESA, Ariz. (AP) - The assistant chief of the Mesa Police Department now will serve as interim chief.
City officials announced Tuesday that Ken Cost will temporarily head the department following Police Chief Ramon Batista's resignation Monday.
Two police unions cast votes of no confidence in Batista in June. He was Mesa's third police chief in nine years and had been in charge since July 2017.
Cost has been with Mesa police for nearly 25 years and was appointed to assistant chief last year, heading up the patrol operations bureau.
His past assignments include patrol, gang unit, street crimes, community action team and the U.S. Marshals Task Force.
