Cities Ravaged by Mexican Drug Violence Struggle to Find New Police Recruits Fusion
go to original September 29, 2016

Across Mexico, municipal and state police departments have been firing hundreds of police officers suspected of having links with drug cartels, or letting go of those who fail to pass quality control and “trustworthiness” exams that include lie detector tests.

These mass firings in state and municipal police forces have forced officials to look for a new generation of candidates.

In Chilpancingo, the capital of the embattled Guerrero state, only 10 people responded to a recent campaign to recruit 140 officers for the municipal police force. To increase applications officials even lowered education requirements for cops, so that even people that only had a middle school education could apply.

In the neighboring state of Michoacan several municipalities have had to disband their entire police forces, including Caracuaro, a town where police officers resigned en masse in 2011 after they were detained and threatened by a local cartel. Law enforcement in these places now depends on a combination of state and federal forces.

One part of the country which has succeeded in building a new police force is Monterrey, the capital of the northern Nuevo Leon State.

Three years ago, Nuevo Leon purged its state police force, firing 4,200 officers who did not pass anti-corruption tests, or were suspected of having links to cartels.

Then, with the help of the local business community, the state set up an elite police force called the “Fuerza Civil.” The force, which now has about 5,000 officers, is made up entirely of new recruits, who’ve never belonged to any of Mexico’s police units before.

Fuerza Civil pays new recruits 15,000 pesos a month [$1,200] twice what a rookie officer makes elsewhere in Mexico. The force provides a place to live, and has set up recruiting booths in Mexico City and other parts of the country, which are boosted by carefully produced videos and ad campaigns depicting members of the force as heroes, who have taken on the task of saving Mexico.

Read the whole story at Fusion

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