About one-half of police chiefs in México state municipalities failed control and confidence tests that were administered starting in 2018, according to state Security Secretary Maribel Cervantes Guerrero.

The failure rate was somewhat lower in the ranks.

The same test was applied to 90% of the approximately 16,000 police officers in the state, and between 20% and 30% failed.

“Now that we have the results of the tests, we’re going to talk to mayors and tell them why the chiefs didn’t pass the tests,” she told the newspaper El Universal. “Most of them were contacted by people with links to organized crime with offers of collaboration. The mayors have been notified of that, and almost all of them have changed their police chiefs.”

The municipalities of Ecatepec, Chalco and Naucalpan were among those where their mayors replaced the chiefs after they failed the exam.

As if to corroborate the results of testing, six municipal police officers in Ecatepec, the most populous municipality in the state, were arrested last Thursday by state police for their involvement in the kidnapping of a businessman.

Of Ecatepec’s 2,300 police officers, 380 are being investigated for various infractions, including losing their weapons, lack of discipline, corruption and abuse of authority.

In the municipality of Tlalnepantla, three municipal police officers were arrested recently for setting up illegal roadblocks to kidnap motorists. Police Chief César Dorantes Rodríguez admitted that as many as 690 Tlalnepantla officers are under investigation, although not all of them for corruption.

There’s a different story in the municipality of Nezahualcóyotl. Police Chief Jorge Amador Amor, who began his job in 2003 with only a civilian background, uses community policing strategies and only two or three officers have been accused of abuse of authority or extortion.

Source: El Universal (sp), Excélsior (sp)