Mexico Seeks to Unify Police to Curb Graft and Fight Drugs

[frontrange]

Source: New York Times

The Mexican government is preparing a plan to radically alter the nation’s police forces, hoping not only to instill a trust the public has never had in them but also to choke off a critical source of manpower for organized crime.

The proposal, which the president’s aides say is expected in the coming weeks, would all but do away with the nation’s 2,200 local police departments and place their duties under a “unified command.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/americas/02mexico.html

[Mike Marble]

1. Like the Mexican Mounties or something?

Is a national police force a good idea?

Mexico's state and municipal police forces have a well-deserved reputation for corruption and being bought off by the cartels. But so do the successive federal police forces (which have to be disbanded periodically because they're so rotten). Would a single national police force be any different?

[bemildred]

2. So you don't think a new org-chart is going to do the job?

I agree.
:thumbsup:

[Mike Marble]

3. Frankly, I don't know what the answer is for Mexico.

Back in the bad old days of the PRI, all the corruption was set in cement. It was crooked, but the drug trade went out without the horrorific violence we're seeing now.

The violence really began escalating after Fox won the presidency and all the old arrangements were thrown out.

Maybe Mexico should go back to just managing the drug trade, instead of trying to suppress it.

Or maybe they should just legalize it. That wouldn't be a panacea, but it would remove lots of profits from the cartels.

[bemildred]

4. Start by decriminalizing drugs, legalize the less pernicious ones outright.

Then regulate and tax moderately. Let that settle, then we can think about what if any medical policies might help reduce the damage further. Mexico, meanwhile, can try to restore civil order when all the drug money stops flooding in from El Norte. It might take a while, but it won't take the 40 years it took to fuck things up this bad.

[timo]

5. this will fly

like a lead ballooon, so when all the cops,transitos,etc are jobless, they will have to pick which cartel to go to work for!!

[Mike Marble]

6. The cops are already working for the cartels.

That's a big part of the problem.

The cartels make cops an offer they can't refuse: Plata o plomo, silver or lead, the bribe or the bullet. Take your pick.

[timo]

7. not all of them

but shutting down the existing police force will leave alot of cops who were not working for the dark side in the lurch...perhaps influencing them to take the offer, another reason I see this as failing miserably is that it will not be the first time they have "gutted corruption" from the police forces!!

[Mike Marble]

8. Yes, corruption in Mexican police forces is a perpetual problem.

Reshuffling the police forces probably won't do any long-term good.

I think legalization is the only answer, but even that isn't going to make the cartels disappear overnight.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[No Elephants]

10. Too little, too late?