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40% of Monterrey Police Gone


Ajijic

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Steve in San Miguel will be happy to read this as he and his partner were kidnapped for 3.5 hours and taken to ATM etc last year in Monterrey enroute from Texas. They feel very lucky to be alive.

178 Police in Monterrey Resign or are Forced Out

Sunday, May 30, 2010 | Borderland Reporter Buggs

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon - Authorities in this northern industrial city said 178

municipal officers, or 40 percent of Monterrey's entire police force, either

resigned or have been dismissed in connection with anti-corruption screening

carried out this week.

In a press conference Friday, Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal presented the

results of five rounds of testing the officers underwent in recent days.

On Monday, Larrazabal ordered the police force's 14 command-level officers and

600 patrolmen to be subjected to five evaluations to weed out officers suspected

of ties to drug traffickers.

Larrazabal said 118 officers voluntarily resigned and 60 others with blemished

records were fired.

The mayor said 76 percent of the sacked officers had been penalized by the

city's Honor and Justice Commission – an agency that processes claims against

law-enforcement officials – or "denounced for actions that required the

intervention of internal affairs."

He added that 15 police failed toxicological exams, while polygraph tests

determined that 12 officers were unfit for the job.

Larrazabal added that Monterrey authorities prefer a smaller, more committed

police force that is less susceptible to infiltration by organized crime.

"It's important to let citizens know that this government is launching a new

stage of the Monterrey municipal police; it's a stage in which we have fewer

police but less chance of (residents of the metropolitan area) having doubts

about their conduct," he said.

The mayor said the purge is no guarantee against future acts of corruption or

abuse of authority, and added that the city's "zero tolerance" program will

remain in effect.

The mayor said that on Monday he will announce a program of financial and

labor-related incentives to support officers who remain with the police force.

Only some 400 Monterrey officers will remain employed, while another 150 cadets

currently undergoing police-academy training will later join the force.

The army and Nuevo Leon state police were in charge of law enforcement in the

city during the two-day lockdown.

The army determined that the Monterrey police force has been infiltrated by

organized-crime groups and many of its officers work for Los Zetas, a band of

special forces deserters turned outlaws.

Several municipal cops have been arrested in recent months for carrying out

kidnappings on behalf of drug cartels.

In March, 23 members of a council that includes the governors of Mexico's 31

states and the mayor of Mexico City signaled their assent to a plan to eliminate

local police forces.

To become a reality, the proposal would have to pass Congress and be ratified by

state legislatures.

The notion has emerged amid a wave of drug-related violence blamed for some

23,000 deaths nationwide since President Felipe Calderon took office in December

2006.

The president has deployed about 65,000 army troops and federal police

nationwide to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations, with part of

their work involving dismantling municipal police departments accused of having

corrupt officers.

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