CLPEX Chat Board

The Mesa Police Department in Mesa, Arizona has a full-time Sr. Latent Print Examiner position available. The information regarding job position, qualifications, benefits, and salary are located on the City of Mesa website under “Job Openings”.

I loved the way Sandra Wiese gave the scoop on the position in Colorado so Sandra I hope you don’t mind a copycat

Here goes…Mesa is the 3rd largest city in the state. We have a fairly large crime lab with over 60 employees and a full service crime lab. The Latent Print Unit consists of three Sr. LPEs and two LPEs (trainees). Our unit only has one supervisor who in my opinion is laidback and very non-micromanaging. He keeps an endless supply of chocolate in his office and he will even make the occasional Dairy Queen run.

A majority of our work consists of latent print comparisons. But, we also stay busy with evidence processing and the occasional crime scene call-out. We don’t have our own offices with doors that close but we do have spacious cubicles that provide privacy. We are in the process of building a new crime lab, which is scheduled to open in August 2008. Most of the lab will be equipped with state of the art equipment. No fish tanks in this new lab. Although I’m not knocking fish tanks

The department provides ample opportunity to pursue outside training and there’s often plenty of funds to attend classes and conferences. The examiners rotate the attendance of the IAI conference so you’re guaranteed to attend every third year, although we’ve been going every other year.

We stay plenty busy but there’s no one breathing down your neck to finish the work. Everyone works well together and any bickering is more like brother and sister. The open position was vacated due to the examiner heading off to Iraq to fulfill his “civic duty”. So, we haven’t had anyone leave due to dissatisfaction with the position.

Now, you may be thinking that Arizona is way too hot but it’s all a matter of jumping from one air -conditioned space to another. There’s only 3-4 months out of the year where it’s really, really hot. The other remaining months are beautiful with lots of sunshine and very little rain. There’s lots of outdoor activities especially for golfers. We’re a short drive away from the mountains and an hour flight away from Vegas and southern California cities. And, there’s lots of real estate available with pools!

For those of you who want a change in environment whether it be work or geography, this is the place to be. The application is available on-line. Please e-mail with any questions or post.

kelly.speckels@cityofmesa.org

Is the hunting and fishing any good in Arizona?

There are over 30 lakes in Arizona so yes fishing is good. And, there's lots to hunt in the mountains and desert. Elk, deer, javelina, quail, pheasant, just to name a few.

Mesa is on the Salt River a couple of suburbs east of Phoenix. A few miles upstream from Mesa is a string of beautiful lakes where the Salt comes down out of the mountains. Fishing, skiing, camping, inner tubing -- anything you can do in a river of cold water (yes, pretty darned cold). In Mesa, you're only a stone's throw from the Superstition Mountains, legendary home of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine. If you like to hike, no better place in the world. The annual Rennaissance Festival is a few miles east of Mesa in Apache Junction. Snow skiing south on Mt. Lemmon in Tucson (southernmost ski slopes in the US), or north at Flagstaff or in the White Mountains. As Kelly said, any kind of hunting you could want. Good pay, low cost of living. There are a lot worse places to live than Arizona!