Breathe
By Sophia Huett
What kind of police force do we want for the Mexico of the present and the future? Let's take a look back at the recent past.
One of the promises of the last former PRI president during his campaign was to create the (national?) Gendarmerie when he took office. He arrived and realized that the "National" Police, of which he had surely been spoken ill of and did not understand until that moment, was quite useful. It was that institution that was even sent to negotiate with the most complicated sectors, including migrant and human rights issues.
And then, instead of changing the Police for a large Gendarmerie, the promise was fulfilled by creating a division within the structure of the Federal Police, which was assigned specialized functions.
Then came the 2018 campaigns and there was again talk that the "National" Police was not enough. And rightly so.
However, the turnaround was relatively unexpected: although it was thought that more personnel would be incorporated and capabilities expanded, what was consummated in the end was a change from Police to Guard.
And what changed besides the name? The profile, composition, areas of expertise and results. In addition to the operation.
The number of female members decreased by 2%, and the percentage of female managers in the institution dropped from 30% to 5%. The head of the institution, as well as the 32 state coordinating offices, were also occupied by men.
Necessary note: there is no room for gender quotas in security, but there is room for equal professional growth conditions.
The schooling of its members also changed: while the average number of staff with a bachelor's degree until before 2018 was 39%, in 2023 it was 12%.
In the operation there were also important changes. In 2019 it was criticized that there were "many administrative personnel" in the offices, what was not said was that they were specialized personnel in areas of intelligence, scientific investigation, cybersecurity and other areas. And territorial deployment was then privileged over specialized work such as intelligence itself.
And that is again the question: what kind of civilian security institution do we want for Mexico?
I would put the first point on the table: a Police that the policy dares to know and understand, in order to make changes for real improvement.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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