Police Testing in Mexico Inspires Little Confidence, Much Debate Richard Fausset - The Los Angeles Times
go to original May 9, 2013

A police officer patrols in downtown Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, Mexico. The mayor's office there recently learned that of the roughly 1,600 police officers who had taken a trustworthiness test, 389 had failed. (Richard Fausset/Los Angeles Times)

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Fired police officer Juan Carlos Martinez Sevilla said he received the call about two months ago. It was a member of a drug cartel, who had somehow found out that Martinez had failed Mexico's national police vetting exam. Why don't you think about joining us, the man on the phone asked. You won't go hungry.

Martinez, 38, declined the offer. The former Guadalajara police commander maintains that he is an honorable cop, but that the exam, which includes psychological, drug and polygraph testing, flunked him in error.

The phone call was not an anomaly. Here in the state of Jalisco, the cartels have tried to lure ex-cops with online recruitment ads. In the northern state of Coahuila, they put up posters.

It is just one of the challenges Mexico faces as it struggles to deep-clean its troubled police forces, relying on an ambitious control de confianza, or confidence control, test that aims to ensure every officer's aptitude and trustworthiness. It's an effort likely to face changes under the country's new government.

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