Pubdate: Thu, 22 May 2008
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2008 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Contact: http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=CFF0C5E4
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83
Author: Sara Miller
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

MEXICO BOOSTS POLICE ETHICS TO FIGHT DRUGS

Local Groups Are Battling Police Corruption - Which Fuels 
Drug-Trafficking - With Programs Such As Ethics Training At Mexico 
City's Police Academy.

Mexico City - Angel Augusto Nunez, a police cadet, knows that cops 
have a bad rap in Mexico.

And as fresh violence has swept the nation's police force into the 
center of the drug war - with the unprecedented slaying of at least 
four high-ranking officers this month - new questions about how many 
officers are colluding with drug dealers and how effective police 
efforts are have battered its reputation once more.

At least one slaying was allegedly coordinated by a federal police 
officer working for drug traffickers. Many local police have 
resigned. Some have reportedly even sought asylum in the United States.

But Mr. Nunez is determined to do his part to rebuild confidence in 
an institution that ranks among society's least trusted. On a recent 
day, in a hardscrabble neighborhood of Mexico City, he is one of 142 
students in a yearlong program at a police academy called the 
Professional Training Institute (PTI) established to raise the 
standards of the city's judicial police.

"I feel proud to put on this shirt and feel part of this 
institution," Nunez says, before heading out to join his colleagues 
in calisthenics.

The challenge to stem Mexico's drug violence - which analysts 
increasingly compare to the situation in Colombia - escalated this 
month when the acting national police chief was killed at his home in 
Mexico City. President Felipe Calderon has vowed to fight on, but 
many say no amount of strength will solve the problem if corruption 
is not first confronted.

As questions about his strategy surface, especially as the US 
considers a $1.4 billion aid package for Mexican security forces over 
three years, smaller grass-roots efforts, such as Mexico City's 
academy and various nongovernmental organizations around the country, 
are developing accountability standards and corruption controls that 
many say could help advance the government's efforts.

"If the police were better trained, it would help against 
infiltration of corruption in the system," says Jose Arturo Yanez, a 
professor at the academy. "At the federal level, the training doesn't 
give them time to develop ethics and the spirit of group work learned 
in the classroom."

Mr. Calderon has made tackling drug violence the cornerstone of his 
presidency, sending 25,000 soldiers and police across the country. 
But at least 1,300 have been killed this year, as wars between drug 
gangs and security forces rage. Usually low paid, cops often 
moonlight for drug traffickers.

The killing this month of Edgar Millan, the acting national police 
chief, represents a troubling new challenge because a federal 
policeman was arrested for coordinating the job, with alleged plans 
to target more officers.

"The assassination ... was possible thanks to corruption in the 
police structure; this is the main weakness of Calderon's general 
strategy," says Erubiel Tirado, director of the national security 
program at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. "You cannot 
fight a war like this without a very clean and professional structure."

While it is the federal police who directly investigate drug 
trafficking, local police are often most susceptible to the lure of drug money.

That is exactly what the PTI is trying to avoid: On a recent day, 
Nunez studies the Spanish police model with his colleagues, listening 
eagerly to the main lesson of the day. "It is about the satisfaction 
of having fulfilled a duty," agent Mauricio Bautista Lara, their 
teacher, explains. "Not to get thanks, or more money, or a day off."

Since the one-year program began five years ago, 600 detectives have 
gone through training, which includes a rigorous recruitment process. 
Cadets' houses are visited - to make sure their family and friends 
are not involved in crime or corruption. The point: to begin with a 
higher caliber of candidate.

The academy is not the only group looking at higher police standards, 
says Raul Benitez, a security expert in Mexico City. He says that 
non-governmental groups have arisen in recent years to demand greater 
accountability from police at all levels. He is the president of the 
Collective of Security Analysis with Democracy, formed in 2007. 
Another group, Insyde, is creating accountability systems for police 
institutions across the country.

In addition to his military deployment, Calderon pledged to overhaul 
Mexico's police system. Many support his efforts, in particular 
reassigning about 300 high- and mid-level officers last year and 
setting up a new national training academy. "He is trying to make 
police service attractive by turning it into a career," says Jorge 
Chabat, a security specialist in Mexico City.

Calderon, and many others, urge patience for the enormous task. 
"Calderon has made a priority of this transformation," says Armand 
Peschard-Sverdrup, an expert on Mexico and head of the 
Washington-based consulting firm Peschard-Sverdrup & Associates, "but 
it is not going to happen overnight."

Still, others worry that his focus has thus far been one of muscle 
and not modification. Mr. Tirado says the administration has not been 
training officers thoroughly because, with the magnitude of the 
crisis, the effort requires as many officers as possible. Yet the 
police, who are increasingly met with AK-47s, need more training than 
ever, he says.

Police deaths are often met with ambivalence - in part because no one 
knows whether they were targets for colluding with drug cartels or 
carrying out their missions. A lack of investigation does not help. 
Mr. Yanez says that, of 300 officers killed over the past two years, 
only one suspect has been arrested directly for the crime.

This lack of accountability can lower morale: This past weekend, the 
police chief in Ciudad Juarez, home of much of the nation's worst 
fighting, resigned from his post. His force had received death 
threats from drug traffickers, many of which have been carried out.

Demand for change is rising, says Mr. Benitez, and he says places 
like the PTI are slowly making a difference. "This is an important 
change in transforming the police. The most important thing is 
creating a new mentality to serve the citizens," says Mr. Bautista 
Lara, who spent 12 years as a police detective in Mexico City.

That sense of purpose, for now, seems to be filtering down. Many 
young recruits hope to be able to continue that spirit. Says Nunez: 
"I think we can do important things for our city, and our country."

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