Someone Will Pay the Police

Your comments Casa Juan are not lost on me.
But, I'm Canadian and have a very firm belief in the uniform a person may wear.

Like you, I am Canadian. I also live in Mexico for six months of the year. I have relatives who were involved in policing for decades and relatives who were involved in licensed professions, all in Canada. I share your views in the Canadian context and recognize that when I am in Mexico, I am not in Canada. Some things are different in better ways. Some are different in worse ways.

I think that one major difference is in the establishment and development of a strong public service, including policing. Mexico is a country in which the public service, and especially policing, has been undervalued and under-compensated.

Police officers in Mexico survive not only the growing onslaught of crime but also their shortcomings: salaries that do not exceed 11,000 pesos (an average of 500 USD a month) and with which they also have to replace the equipment they are given incomplete; lack of basic training such as shooting practice that one in five police officers have never received; any growth, few promotions, abuse by bosses, insults, contempt.

https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2020/06/the-harsh-reality-of-the-mexican-police/

That same article says that the average monthly police salary in Guererro is M$9,000 to M$10,000. You can bet that a uniformed policía vial is on the bottom side of that “average”.

I have heard an expression in Canada, “You can pay police well, or someone else will.” Unfortunately, that seems to sometimes be the case in Mexico.

To feel and experience what has become an urban comedy myth about Mexican authority and being corrupt, I gotta call it and bang my head against a brick wall would be worthwhile if I can find that brick wall.

I think there is a difference between “mordida” and true “corruption”. As an example I own a house in Mexico. One time my property manager failed to pay my CFE (electric) bill on time. The consequence was that CFE came and took away my electric meter. To get it back, the property owner has to go to CFE, pay the outstanding bill, then pay a penalty, then pay reinstallation of the meter. This is not only expensive, it is time consuming. My property would have been without electricity for days.

But the property manager noticed a CFE truck at a nearby restaurant. He stopped and had lunch with the CFE guy in his uniform, bought his lunch for him, talked about the situation, and for the price of a case of beer the meter was reinstalled without it ever getting to CFE.

Was that “being corrupt”? I didn’t think so.

I might be naive, but when I have told by police in Mexico that I have done something wrong, I tell them I want to be ticketed and I will pay the ticket. When I have been in the wrong, as I have been sometimes, I have gotten a ticket and paid it. When I have not been in the wrong, as has sometimes been the case, I have been given a warning without a ticket.

If you want to help the role of a strong, professional police service in Mexico, I hope you will start where the problem starts. That is not at the level of some uniform on the street trying to feed their kids. It is at the level of governments first paying for professional policing, and then enforcing professional conduct.