CDHM "TLACHINOLLAN" A.C.

One year after the creation of the Civil Monitor 117 cases of police abuse have been registered.

Tlapa, Guerrero, Mexico, on 26^th November 2008. One year after the inauguration of the Civil Monitor of the Police and Security Services in the La Montaña region of Guerrero, lawyers from this citizens’ project have registered 117 cases relating to different types of abuse by police. Among others these include exorbitant fines, arbitrary detentions, excessive use of force, illegally raiding homes and failing to act upon arrest warrants, usually by the Ministerial Investigative Police (Policía Investigadora Ministerial, PIM) and the preventative police from various municipalities.

The Civil Monitor is a civil society organisation that was created as a citizens’ surveillance committee to promote the four basic principles of serving the citizenry, respecting the law, respecting human rights and operating in a transparent manner; principles to which the police forces must adhere.

The Monitor was founded as an autonomous body as a result of efforts by three civil society institutions; the Institute for Security and Democracy (Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia, Insyde), Fundar Centre for Analysis and Investigation and TLACHINOLLAN. Consequently, it does not represent any political party, or speak in favour of or against any party’s interests; rather, it offers technical and scientific support to the police forces from a human rights perspective.

In this respect, one of the primary objectives of the Civil Monitor of the Police and Security Forces in the La Montaña region of Guerrero is to provide the police and the security forces with an external, civil, impartial and independent perspective on their behaviour and inform them of the citizens’ perceptions and level of satisfaction regarding their work. This is why one of their strategic lines of work is not only attending to and documenting citizens’ complaints about police abuses, but also complaints from the police officers themselves when their labour rights are abused.

Since its creation in November 2007, to date, the Civil Monitor has registered 117 cases regarding 16 of the 24 police forces that are operating in the region. 84 percent of these complaints were registered by citizens and the remaining 16 percent were from police men and women that have come to our offices following the violation of their labour rights.

With regards to the events denounced by citizens making complaints, arbitrary detention is the most recurrent violation, given that it is a constant practice among the forces, which deprives citizens of their freedom even though there is no flagrant crime, public order offence or arrest warrant.

Another common practice among the police forces that has been documented by the Civil Monitor is handing out excessive fines. The councils’ Public Security Management Departments are seen as sources of income for the municipal public administration and therefore excessive charges are given by way of fines. To this day the Civil Monitor points out that not one of the municipalities in the region gives fines for public order offences on the basis of fixed rates set by the police forces and the government. Therefore, the amount of money they charge is decided by the officials on duty.

It is important to mention that the Civil Monitor has also received complaints from police officers, as a result of the working conditions that they are subjected to in the police institutions. Cases documented include failure to pay salaries, working days that exceed 24 hours, failure to supply the basic equipment such as boots and ammunition, as well as ill-treatment in the exercise of power by their superiors. It is worth highlighting that we have been able to defend police officers who have died or are injured in the course of duty; that is to say, as a result of work hazards. Furthermore, the level of institutional abandonment suffered by police officers is extremely worrying, given that they do not have health insurance, let alone life insurance.

Likewise, the Monitor has been able to obtain information regarding the specific vulnerability of female police officers within the forces. We have received testimonies from women regarding their unequal and discriminatory treatment, be it sexual harassment by their superiors, or being ordered to clean and cook; tasks which do not enter their job description as police officers.

Another aspect that the Civil Monitor wishes to emphasise, that we have identified in this first year of work through our links with the police forces, is that the municipal preventative police always suffer from internal divisions for political reasons; forming different groups that respond to different partisan alliances. Consequently, within one police force there is the Trustee’s group that belongs to one political party and against them there is the municipal president’s group that represents another political party.

Without a doubt, this situation is detrimental to the service that the police are able to offer to the citizenry, given that the force no longer works to preserve the public order and help the population, but rather reacts according to partisan political interests.

The democratic reform of the security institutions is still pending in our country and nowadays it is highly relevant, given the climate of violence across our nation and particularly in Guerrero state. The security to which all Mexicans have a right will only be achieved if we can rely upon institutions that are aware that their behaviour must be based upon respect for human rights and the law. Historically, the police institutions were created to protect the political interests of those in power; however, today we must coin the concept that ensuring citizens’ security is the core objective of the forces’ work, precisely because their work must be aimed at serving the citizenry.

The Civil Monitor of the Police and Security Forces in the La Montaña Region aims to document the state of the forces with a view to making proposals for change that provide an incentive for initiating processes of democratic reform. This reform would allow the citizenry to rely upon transparent security institutions that fulfil their preventative role, aimed at protecting citizens.

During this first year of work we have been able to document many practices within the forces that help us to identify the primary foci of attention and in particular, explain the reasons why citizens have become distanced from the police. Without a doubt, one of the forces’ first jobs will be to rebuild the bridges of trust with the population.