The New Juarez Police Outlook

A total of 339 new police officers graduated from the Academy of the Secretary of Municipal Public Security (SSPM), of which 56 were women considered to be one of the biggest number in history. The new police officers took an oath of service during a ceremony at Juárez city hall.

Mayor José Reyes Ferriz referred to the new officers as elements that will change the image of the department in more positive way due to their quality in training.

The mayor added that that these officers will work to regain the trust of the public and asked them not to succumb to the temptation of corruption that they may encounter from the wealthy drug cartels. He also requested the citizens take an active role as supervisors in the performance of these new officers. He said that this fifth generation of cadets under his administration came out with training based on four basic principles.

The first is the protection of the family, theirs and the society in general. More training in civic education which emphasized the love of country, but especifically that of Ciudad Juarez. They also were given an understanding of having a healthy mental outlook, which meant looking beyond everything inside themselves that goes against their own personal bias, and lastly, always maintaining a professional image.

Ciudad Juárez is in the grip of the most violent drug war the nation has ever seen. President Felipe Calderón has sent in the army to take on both the country’s notorious drugs cartels and a few too many corrupt police elements. The army is fighting the cartels, the cartels are fighting each other and honest cops are in short supply. Nowhere else has anyone suffered more than the people in Juárez.

The results have been nothing short of chaos.

On a daily basis corpses are spotted on roadsides, down alleys, in public dumps and perched in public squares. Bodies have been found handcuffed together, bearing the marks of vicious beatings. Severed heads have been dumped in cool boxes and there are reports of torture videos posted on YouTube. A local paper claimed one cartel hired a musician to play victims their favourite ballads during their executions.

The cartels act like they’re untouchable. They pass lists of names to local police, telling them who they’ll be killing in the weeks to come. One note was left at a monument to fallen officers. It listed 22 police officers who had resisted the corrupting efforts of the cartels.

So far, 18 are dead.

So Juarez is attempting to revamp its police forces with better training and a force possessing a degree of integrity. This required the cleansing of the Juarez police forces in order to eradicate the curruption from the drug cartels. Juarez is attempting to fill the void of hundreds of officers who have been fired for failing "confidentiality tests " or police officers who have quit for fear of being executed by the ruthless cartels.

But despite all this life goes on in Juarez and people try to retain some trust in their government. It is obvious more police are needed and more training is necessary. Juárez is still looking to recruit 1,400 more officers as the city deals with a crime wave that began last year. This task will not be easy, especially when you are a cop in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico.

Categories: ciudad juarez, Mexican Crime, police, police procedure, war on drugs