The municipal police of the country have deficiencies such as lack of documentation of their activities, they do not incorporate scientific and technical criteria in decision-making; the disciplinary processes within it are “highly discretionary”, in addition to the fact that they do not have external supervision mechanisms, concluded an analysis of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) in collaboration with the Institute for Security and Democracy, AC (Insyde), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German government.
For the final report “Findings on the application of the verification tool of the Indicators System of the National Police and Civic Justice Model (MNPJC)”, the institutions analyzed 32 police officers from localities with high levels of intentional homicides at the beginning of 2020 .
The corporations were located in the states of Baja California (Tijuana and Ensenada); Chiapas (San Cristóbal de las Casas); Chihuahua (Chihuahua and Juárez); Colima (Colima and Manzanillo); Edomex (Nezahualcóyotl); Guanajuato (Celaya, Irapuato, León and San Miguel de Allende).
As well as Guerrero (Acapulco); Jalisco (Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Tlajomulco, Tonalá and Zapopan); Michoacán (Morelia and Uruapan; Nuevo León (Escobedo, San Pedro Garza and Monterrey); Oaxaca (Oaxaca); Puebla (Puebla); Querétaro (Querétaro); Quintana Roo (Solidaridad, Cancún); Sinaloa (Culiacán); Sonora (Hermosillo) ; Tabasco (Center) and CDMX.
As a result of this, it was concluded that the local police officers lack documentation “when it comes to showing evidence that could consist of formal documents, written procedures, response time reports, survey results, analysis documents for decision-making, minutes of command meetings, and organization manuals ”.
It was also highlighted that although the majority of municipal police showed significant progress in the area of proximity policing, regarding the Police Model Oriented to Problem Solving, it was not possible to find conclusive evidence that shows the structured application of said methodology.
The report also warned that “there is a tendency to integrate as commanders people who do not have training or experience in police matters, whether they are ex-military and even active military or civilian profiles. In order to promote police reform, we consider it essential that the authorities in charge have knowledge of the police operation ”.
According to the report, the most worrying issue may continue to be the low investment in salary improvement, social benefits and legal certainty for members of local police institutions.
“The base salaries of the rank and file police officers range from 8,000 pesos a month to 19,000 pesos in the case of San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, which also stands out for the payment of overtime. Most do not have established formal criteria to compensate for this additional work time ”.
Good practices
Of the police officers analyzed, the report highlighted cases in which there are practices that can be replicated.
The one in Chihuahua, for example, was the only one that showed a clear and documented methodology for operational deployment regarding crime incidence and other factors.
The Tijuana police; Chihuahua; Nezahualcóyotl; Escobedo; Monterrey; San Pedro Garza, the report cited, “demonstrated an important advance in criminal investigation, collaborating to resolve property crimes and, to a lesser extent, cases such as family violence and homicide, although resistance is still noted from prosecutors of the country to accept this practice ”.
In the analysis, a score was assigned to each of the police officers based on items such as research practices, infrastructure, civic justice, equipment, working conditions, among others, and whose maximum score was 46 points.
The police with the highest scores were those from Chihuahua (43); San Pedro Garza (43) and Querétaro (42). In contrast, those of the minors were Acapulco (11); Tijuana (22) and Ensenada (23).
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx