Politics: Security system struggles
The decision by Jalisco state and federal authorities to sequester all members of the Tlaquepaque police force and directly assume control over public security in the municipality was immediately viewed through a partisan lens in a state where the PRI governor has long been warring with the opposition controlled municipalities in the Guadalajara Greater Metropolitan Area. For over a decade such interventions have been undertaken in various parts of the country, with some involving the displacement not only of municipal police forces, but also of the security systems of entire states. This initiative, however, is unique, in part because of its timing as Mexico prepares for nationwide elections July 1, the same day Jalisco voters will also chose their next governor, state legislature and municipal authorities.
But the Tlaquepaque operation also highlights the extent to which 23 years of reforms have failed to provide the country with a coherent and functional legal structure in which major gaps in the nation’s public security systems can be dealt with. It is the first intervention of its kind since Congress passed the highly controversial Interior Security Law (ISL), devised to a large extent to address some of the legal vacuums that remained following seven years in which lawmakers failed to pass a series of unified-command based reform proposals.
And with very few exceptions, piecemeal efforts to establish the varied unified-command arrangements currently in effect in much of the country have done nothing to harmonize standards, equipment, protocols, remunerations and capacities across all police departments, much less address the myriad structural deficiencies that plague the system nationwide. Moreover, since they are based on covenants directly with municipal administrations that are replaced every three years, they fail to provide one of the main advantages of a standing unified-command system: undercutting the pressure exerted by organized crime on municipal governments.
One option would be a nationwide reform process in which local officials would continue to exert operational command over police departments while their administrative management would become a federal responsibility. This would allow for more uniform and professional recruitment, training, confidence control and social provision systems.
Now read on...
Register to sample a report