Federal District Police
Encyclopedia
The Ministry of Public Security is the law enforcement agency of Mexico City
, headquartered in Venustiano Carranza
. It manages a combined force of over 90,000 officers in the Federal District (DF).
The Federal District Police (Policial Distrito Federal) is the police department of the Federal District of Mexico. The Federal District (the DF or Distrito Federal) contains the heart of Mexico City and the seat of federal Mexican government. There are 8.84 million residents of the DF, according to 2009 estimates, and another 21.1 million people in the metropolitan region.
The SSP is charged with maintaining public order and safety in the center of Mexico City where public insecurity and crime rates are highest in the nation. As a result, there have been concurrent efforts to increase accountability and improve police effectiveness. Beginning in 1996, authorities began a dramatic restructuring of the SSP, which included replacing major officials with army officers. Recently, the most recent high-profile effort has been Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador
’s announcement in 2002 that the DF would contract former New York City Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani as a consultant to the SSP.
The SSP also regulates the huge private security industry in the DF and operates the Animal Control Unit (Brigada de Vigiliancia Animal).
of Public Security of the DF (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública – SSP DF). In 2000, the SSP had a budget of about $10 billion pesos and is organizaed into six major divisions.
The remaining five divisions of the Preventive Police containing over 17,000 of the 34,000 total, are organized into special divisions:
Two separate forces under the SSP but not part of the Preventive Police, are the Complementary Police containing two security police
forces:
The PGJDF maintains 16 precincts (delegaciones) with an estimated 3,500 judicial police, which includes 1,100 investigating agents for prosecuting attorneys (agentes del ministerio público), and 941 experts or specialists (peritos).
The PGJDF budget exceeds $3 billion pesos each year.
In 2002, an advocacy group (Transparency International) estimated that the median Mexican household spends 8% of its income on bribes (mordidas or “bites”). On the TI scale, Mexico ranks 57th worldwide in perception of corruption, one notch better than China at 58 and well below Brazil and Peru at 45. In 1997, Mexico ranked 47th; in 1998, 55th. A management consulting firm (A.T. Kearney) reported, also in 2002, that Mexico’s attractiveness to foreign investors dropped, from fifth to ninth place worldwide, due to
concerns with corruption and crime.
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, headquartered in Venustiano Carranza
Venustiano Carranza, D.F.
Venustiano Carranza is one of the 16 delegaciones of Mexico's Federal District. The borough was formed in 1970 when the center of Mexico City was subdivided into four boroughs...
. It manages a combined force of over 90,000 officers in the Federal District (DF).
The Federal District Police (Policial Distrito Federal) is the police department of the Federal District of Mexico. The Federal District (the DF or Distrito Federal) contains the heart of Mexico City and the seat of federal Mexican government. There are 8.84 million residents of the DF, according to 2009 estimates, and another 21.1 million people in the metropolitan region.
The SSP is charged with maintaining public order and safety in the center of Mexico City where public insecurity and crime rates are highest in the nation. As a result, there have been concurrent efforts to increase accountability and improve police effectiveness. Beginning in 1996, authorities began a dramatic restructuring of the SSP, which included replacing major officials with army officers. Recently, the most recent high-profile effort has been Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador , also known as AMLO or El Peje, is a Mexican politician who held the position of Head of Government of the Federal District from 2000 to 2005, before resigning in July 2005 to contend the 2006 presidential election, representing the unsuccessful Coalition for the Good...
’s announcement in 2002 that the DF would contract former New York City Mayor
Mayor of New York City
The Mayor of the City of New York is head of the executive branch of New York City's government. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property, police and fire protection, most public agencies, and enforces all city and state laws within New York City.The budget overseen by the...
Rudolph Giuliani as a consultant to the SSP.
The SSP also regulates the huge private security industry in the DF and operates the Animal Control Unit (Brigada de Vigiliancia Animal).
Organization
The DF stands out for having the highest crime rates in Mexico, as well as a huge uniformed "preventive police" force of approximately 34,000 officers, not to mention 40,000 auxiliary police and 15,000 banking police. These nearly 90,000 officers work for the Secretariatof Public Security of the DF (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública – SSP DF). In 2000, the SSP had a budget of about $10 billion pesos and is organizaed into six major divisions.
Preventive Police - DF Organization
- Sectoral Police (Policía Sectoral)- the blue uniformed Sectoral Police provides community policing throughout Mexico City, the Sectoral Police consists of slightly less than half of the Preventive Police are distributed geographically in the first major division the Sectoral Police, who six main regions with usually three precincts in each (a total of 16 precincts) and a number of sectors within each precinct. There are a total of 70 sectors.
The remaining five divisions of the Preventive Police containing over 17,000 of the 34,000 total, are organized into special divisions:
- The Metropolitan PoliceMetropolitan policeMetropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
(Policía Metropolitana), consists of six special units:- Public Transit PoliceTransit policeTransit police are a specialized police agency or unit employed by a common carrier, which could be a transit district, railroad, bus line, other transport carrier, or the state...
, - Tourist Police, gives information on law, customs and cultural attractions in the local community and places to be visited by all tourists. The officers of the Tourist Police wear a distinctive green uniform and deal and speak English and some other European languages. They can be called upon in all kinds of situations, such as road traffic accidents, theft, disputes with hotels or shop keepers where a foreign tourist is involved. They will also act as arbitrators in disputes, and are supposed to do so in an unbiased fashion.
- Grenadiers (Granaderos) protect the historic areas of the district
- Mounted PoliceMounted policeMounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...
, - Feminine Police (Policía Femenil) who work in schools, with juveniles, at public events and in public parks and gardens,
- Public Transit Police
- Emergency Rescue SquadRescue squadA rescue company is a public service organization that uses specialized equipment and knowledge to rescue people. There are two typical applications: squads that rescue trapped people, and squads that rescue people who are having medical emergencies....
(Escuadron de Rescate y Urgencias Medicas or ERUM). - Special Squadrons (Fuerzas Especiales) consisting of four main groups:
- Helicopter Squadron (Escadron Elicopteros);
- Special Unit (Buczo Especial) , a specialized unit responsible for combined duties involving traffic enforcement, crowd control, and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) services within the city. One unique feature of the unit is that the Special Unit primarily relies on the use of motorcycles in their daily patrols allowing the unit to perform routine traffic enforcement; accompany parades, crowds, and visiting dignitaries; and to quickly travel to situations wherein the unit's SWAT skills are requested. Specialized trucks and support vehicles are also used to transport equipment and officers when needed.
- Task ForceTask forceA task force is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology...
(Fuerza de Tareas) which deals with terrorists and bomb threats; - Alfa GroupAlfa GroupAlfa Group Consortium is one of Russia's largest privately owned investment groups, with interests in oil and gas, commercial and investment banking, asset management, insurance, retail trade, telecommunications, water utilities and special situation investments...
, a secretive, ad hocAd hocAd hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
force that works with the Special Unit and fights drug trafficking.
- Roadway SecurityHighway patrolA highway patrol is either a police unit created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways, or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency that is primarily concerned with such duties.Duties of highway patrols or traffic...
(Seguridad Vial), which maintains a force of brown-uniformed police that patrol the roads and highways. - Internal AffairsInternal affairs (law enforcement)The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...
is the final division.
Two separate forces under the SSP but not part of the Preventive Police, are the Complementary Police containing two security police
Security police
In some countries, including the United States, security police are those persons, employed by or for a governmental agency, who provide police and security services to those agencies' properties....
forces:
- Auxiliary PoliceAuxiliary policeAuxiliary police or special constables in England) are usually the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be armed or unarmed. They may be unpaid volunteers or paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated...
(approximately 40,000 strong), a security policeSecurity policeIn some countries, including the United States, security police are those persons, employed by or for a governmental agency, who provide police and security services to those agencies' properties....
force that guards official buildings and other specific locations like the airport; - Bank Police (Bancarios) (about 15,000 officers), which guards businesses, financial institutions and banks.
Judicial Police of the DF
The DF is also unique for maintaining its own force of judicial police, the Judicial Police of the Federal District (Policía Judicial del Distrito Federal – PJDF), which are organized under the Office of the Attorney General of the DF (the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal). The PGJDF receives complaints and reports of possible crimes and investigates them.The PGJDF maintains 16 precincts (delegaciones) with an estimated 3,500 judicial police, which includes 1,100 investigating agents for prosecuting attorneys (agentes del ministerio público), and 941 experts or specialists (peritos).
The PGJDF budget exceeds $3 billion pesos each year.
Police Corruption and Public Confidence
Corruption and severe inefficiency plague the Mexican police. Further, low pay and lack of resources have hindered efforts at improving police performance, battling corruption and professionalizing the forces. A related lack of public confidence has further eroded the ability of the police to respond to crime: A survey in 1999 found that 90% of respondents in Mexico City had “little” or “no” trust in the police. Such a lack of public confidence translates into a lack of support—that is, an unwillingness to report crimes or assist in investigations, which is crucial to solving crimes. Nationwide, only 12% of the population has expressed confidence in the police.In 2002, an advocacy group (Transparency International) estimated that the median Mexican household spends 8% of its income on bribes (mordidas or “bites”). On the TI scale, Mexico ranks 57th worldwide in perception of corruption, one notch better than China at 58 and well below Brazil and Peru at 45. In 1997, Mexico ranked 47th; in 1998, 55th. A management consulting firm (A.T. Kearney) reported, also in 2002, that Mexico’s attractiveness to foreign investors dropped, from fifth to ninth place worldwide, due to
concerns with corruption and crime.
Private security
Mexican and Mexico City security companies have grown significantly in recent years, in response to the state’s failure to provide security. Mexico holds third place world-wide in the purchase of security equipment. Between 1998 and 1999, private security companies increased some 40 percent. The Mexican federal and state governments has had serious problems in regulating these companies, most of which are illegitimate since they lack the necessary legal permits. It was estimated in 1999, that about 10,000 private security firms operated in Mexico, yet only 2,000 had some form of official permit. According to official figures in December 2000, there were 2,984 private security companies registered with 153,885 employees. The inability to regulate or control these forces creates potential security problem. Since many of these companies are unregulated, some will engage in criminality instead of (or as a means of) protecting their clients, thus exacerbating the problem of insecurity. According to a study by the Mexico City legislative assembly, in 1998 there were more private security guards than police. A substantial number of private security guards were formerly police officers or presently work as security guards while off-duty; these dynamics increase the likelihood of police corruption.See also
- Presumed GuiltyPresumed Guilty (2009 film)Presumed Guilty shows the attempt by two young Mexican attorneys to exonerate a wrongly convicted man by making a documentary...
, a 2009 Mexican documentary film