A SECRET LOOK AT MEXICAN POLICE

Undercover study in an unidentified city portrays a force riddled with
criminal gangs

MEXICO CITY -- Two classmates at the police academy admitted to murders. A
few others had not completed primary school. And most of the would-be cops
formed friendships sharing marijuana during recess.

Nearly all wound up as police officers in Mexico after graduating from an
academy where instructors taught the finer points of taking bribes,
according to Mexican sociologists who spent two years viewing a Mexican
police force from the inside.

The study portrays a police force riddled with what amounts to criminal
gangs bent on extorting money from drivers, shopkeepers and criminals in
one of the mega-suburbs ringing Mexico City. The authors insist that one
would find similar circumstances in many other Mexican cities.

It is an apparently unprecedented inside account of one of Mexico's most
pressing political issues: an explosion in crime.

Tourist attacks double

The number of reported tourist attacks -- both on foreigners and Mexicans
- -- has doubled, for example, in the first months of this year, to an
average of 20 a day in Mexico City, according to the Tourism Ministry. And
many attacks aren't even reported.

The U.S. State Department last month warned visitors to be extra cautious
in the capital, where it said crime had reached ``critical levels.''

Current and former officers are implicated repeatedly in killings,
kidnappings, drug trafficking and old-fashioned street-corner bribery.

``Restructuring the police force will touch many interests. It would be
very difficult,'' said Adrian Lspez Rivera, who says he spent two years as
a police officer, working under the supervision of his teacher, Nelson
Arteaga Botello of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. None
of the police-officer candidates knew they were the subject of a study.

The two men refused to name the city where they did their research and
changed the names of those they quoted. The report was excerpted in the
prestigious magazine Nexos.

Mexico City Police Chief Rodolfo Debernardi indicated he was not surprised
by Nexos' characterization of the neighboring police force.

``Disgracefully, that has existed and we have to diminish those kinds of
activities,'' he said in an interview, insisting that his own force was
attacking corruption.

Academic probes are rare

Academic probes of Mexican police forces, however, are rare -- and require
great courage.

``The problem is that studying the police is dangerous,'' forcing
investigators to immerse themselves in the police culture, Arteaga said.

The fact that the story could be published at all is a sign of greater
transparency in Mexico, though he said the new political openness had not
reduced corruption in cities.

Lspez entered the police academy about four years ago with a seemingly
unpromising group. Many were ``people who had great difficulty writing,
even reading.''

One candidate told Lspez he'd hacked a man to death for suggesting his
brother was gay. ``As a policeman, nobody will hunt me for the dead guy.''

One officer, identified as ``Andris,'' admitted beating his first wife to
death and fleeing vengeance-minded brothers. He was quoted as saying he had
a new girlfriend he ``beats for the heck of it. What's more, she has no
brothers.''

A more typical case was the candidate who figured he could buy a minibus
with three years of salary and bribes.

Others were former officers from other jurisdictions who had been fired for
drugs, robbery or excessive violence.

Recruitment a problem

Recruitment is a serious problem, Arteaga said, and most of the candidates
were relatives and friends of current officers. Bribes were enough to
overcome problems meeting physical or academic requirements.

A psychologist giving a personality test said he would reject all except
those who ``place between the pages of the test the money according to the
result you would like.''

While courses on law were weak, there were other lessons. Several
instructors urged students to ``rob with professionalism,'' according to
the report.

``You don't ask for money, only wait,'' a professor was quoted as saying.
``The people are going to give it to you automatically; you don't have to
say anything.''

Commanders demanded a minimum of $9 a day. For use of a good patrol car,
the payoff was about $60 a day. Officers then earned about $360 a month.

``The policeman always has hopes that a robbery represents not only a
moment to carry out his work -- arrest criminals -- but also permits him to
obtain something else: to rob what is being robbed,'' the report said.

Once on the street, Lspez said, those who failed to take and share bribes
were shunted to marginal assignments.

Debernardi insists that in his department the problems are being addressed
through greater supervision, higher entrance standards and rotation of
commanders. Officials have campaigned against payoffs to superiors.

Police departments throughout Mexico have repeatedly tried cleanup
campaigns, firing thousands of corrupt officers annually.

Arteaga doubts it will help.

``You can't purify the police of all the corrupt members,'' Arteaga said,
``because the moment you do that, what you are doing is sending delinquents
to the street.''

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)