NEW CHIEF TRIES RESCUING A MEXICO CITY MIRED IN CRIME

Energetic Reformer Battles Corruption, Dismal Morale By Hiring Consultants
And Redistributing Street Cops

MEXICO CITY -- It's barely 11 a.m. on a recent, smoggy morning in the
capital, and already a band of gunslingers has pulled off six bank
robberies and a jewelry heist.

>From behind an oversize desk in the downtown Mexico City headquarters
of the Judicial Police, General Director Mauricio Tornero Salinas
rises and barks rapid-fire orders into the phone.

``Go there now! Like the wind! Take control of the investigation right
away! We have to track them down,'' Tornero said, punctuating the air
with an index finger as he fields calls about the gang that has been
terrorizing Mexico City banks since December, when he was appointed
this city's top cop.

Tornero ascended to his post after Mayor CuauhtÈmoc C·rdenas, the
left-of-center opposition-party leader, was swept into office. Voters,
weary of unfettered crime and official corruption, told C·rdenas to
clean up their city.

C·rdenas stumbled out of the gate -- his first choice for city
prosecutor quit within days after government reports linked him to
drug-trafficking rings. But since then, analysts have lauded the new
mayor for quick action against crime and corruption.

The biggest task belongs to Tornero, a former cop turned human rights
lawyer. He inherited a force of 4,000, but quickly found crime files
in disarray, police warehouses stocked with unused and obsolete
equipment, and ranking officers charging street cops a fee for using
broken-down cruisers.

Tornero is trying to fix a department so hobbled by corruption, low
morale and incompetence that only 10 percent of the roughly 700 crimes
reported daily are solved.

Shakedowns were so common that officers openly bragged about the $30
or so they scored each day from citizens -- ad hoc subsidies for
salaries estimated at $400 a month for a veteran officer.

But tackling the increase in street crimes against tourists and
foreign businesspeople also is one of Tornero's highest priorities.

Just before Christmas, American real estate agent Peter Zarate was
killed as he tried to escape a hijacked taxi. The shooting led U.S.
officials to issue warnings about travel in Mexico.

Even before Zarate's death, Americans in Mexico knew how dangerous
Mexico City had become. Mexican police said an FBI official, posted in
the U.S. Embassy, was mugged last fall in one of the thousands of
low-cost taxis known as ``gypsy'' cabs -- Volkswagen Beetles that
troll every street of the city.

And this week, boxing promoter Don King was relieved of his $100,000
Rolex watch on his way to a downtown hotel from the airport. King,
unharmed in the incident, was in town to promote a fight headed by his
client, Julio CÈsar Ch·vez.

``(Mayor) C·rdenas and (City Attorney General) Samuel Del Villar have
made fighting crime and giving people a new sense of security their
top priority,'' Tornero said. ``We obviously can't bust the budget,
but they've promised us all the money we need to do the job.''

In January, Mexico City hotel operators said, an average of 23
tourists each day were victims of all magnitudes of crimes. In January
1997, the same hotel group found six crimes per day reported by
visitors to this teeming capital city of nearly 20 million people.

And throughout 1997, the hotel group said, an average of 17 visitors a
day became crime victims. Of those visitors, 696 were from the United
States.

The study also said an estimated 700 crimes were reported daily last
year, up from some 350 in 1993.

``We have to admit that crime is still a problem for our city, that
visitors, people who are dressed well or don't look like they're from
Mexico City are targets for criminals and gangs,'' Tornero said. ``But
we have taken steps that have caused a 20 percent drop in taxi
assaults and more will be done.''

Tornero began tackling the problem by redistributing the 4,000
officers in his force.

When he arrived, two-thirds were assigned to station-house duty and to
department headquarters. Tornero reversed that, and assigned new foot,
bicycle and squad-car patrols to areas frequented by tourists and
business people.

Tornero also launched a top-down review of all officers, weeding out
104 accused of committing crimes or accepting bribes.

But his work is not all punitive. Tornero said his goal is to ``bring
dignity to the vocation of being a police officer'' by upgrading pay,
increasing benefits, and ridding the force of hierarchical rules that
forced street cops to pay for everything from bullets to bulletproof
vests and even repairs on their patrol cars.

Tornero also has started training seminars on investigative tactics,
led by FBI agents and detectives from the police department in Paris,
France.

It will take time, Tornero said, for all of the new ideas to yield
results.

``You can't change a city, do all of this work and see results from
night to day,'' Tornero said. ``We are showing the public some
results, however, by first cleaning up our own house.''