Pay Peanuts; Get Monkeys

I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a police officer in Guerrero. I couldn’t cut-and-paste from this 2015 report, but it says that 98% of municipal police officers in Guerrero were paid less than M$10,000 per month. One-third were paid less than M$5,000/month. That was US$250-$500/month.

Would you risk your life and the security of your family for that?

In one survey 85% of municipal police said they did not even receive uniforms, bullets, or ballistic vests as needed.

In addition, 80% said their vehicles are not properly maintained and don't have enough gasoline.

Citizens in Canada, the US, and Mexico seem to be eager to criticize public servants. But if we are only willing to pay peanuts, we can’t expect to get much more than monkeys. My property taxes in Mexico are embarrassingly low compared to what I pay in Canada. Imagine how much more municipal police could be paid if the rich extranjeros, chilangos, tapatíos paid reasonable taxes. Lord knows how little in taxes the luxury hotels in Ixtapa and the mega-stores in Zihuatanejo pay.

Imagine how the municipal police could be equipped.

Imagine being able to attracted educated people into policing.

That same report said that 13% of municipal police had not attended school or only elementary school. Some 40% had completed only middle school. That is over half of the police who didn’t even make it to being a high school dropout.

Sure it is easy to complain about others’ being incompetent. But if we want professional policing, let’s put professional policing into place.