Mexico's leader aims to oust corrupt police
MEXICO CITY — Mexico's most corruption-plagued municipal police forces would be replaced by state police within two years under a bill that President Enrique Pena Nieto has submitted to Congress.
Municipal police in the states of Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Jalisco and Michoacan would be placed under state control quickly.
In September, a drug cartel-infiltrated municipal police force in the Guerrero state city of Iguala detained 43 students and turned them over to the gang, which reportedly killed them. The mayor and many of his police officers were arrested.
In the northern border state of Tamaulipas, many municipal police forces effectively have been dissolved because they were unable to face up to warring drug cartels or had been co-opted by them.
In Michoacan, civilian vigilantes were invited to join a state rural police force that has taken over security duties in many towns.
The remainder of Mexico's 31 states presumably would have police not always more trustworthy than city or town cops.
According to the Common Cause civic group, more state police (20,521) have failed background or vetting tests than municipal police (18,177). But the plan would be expensive.
Nuevo Leon has the most effective record in establishing a new statewide police force. But it had to recruit out of state to find clean, qualified, willing candidates, and pay them well, at more than $1,000 per month. The state even provided housing.
in special, secure housing developments.
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