Mexico Trucker Online

The head of the city’s transit police said about 50 percent of his officers are corrupt, but he’s continuing with a campaign to clean up the department.“We will banish the corruption that is still tolerated in the department,” said Sergio Mora, director of the transit police department, which has about 150 officers in a city with an estimated 140,000 vehicles in circulation. “It’s hard work, but we are working to reach the level of ethics that we want.”

Mora noted that 15 transit police officers have been fired this year after they were accused of corruption. He acknowledged that it’s a serious problem, and that the department hardly has the funds to hire outside experts to keep an eye on internal affairs.

“We want them (transit officers) to change, to understand that if they don’t want to do their work, they are at risk of becoming ineligible to work for the government for many years,” Mora said. “We want to change them with training, explaining that this is a new style of working for the community.”

City officials note that of the estimated 140,000 vehicles circulating in the city, about half are illegal; that is, they are U.S. vehicles that have not been properly registered in Mexico, they are missing license plates altogether or violate other Mexican laws.

For many people, it’s a matter of cost.

Arturo Antonio Chávez of the Colonia Nueva Era said he recently bought a car for 5,000 pesos — about $450.

“This car takes me and brings me to my home and my work,” he said. “Sometimes, I take my family to town in it. The transit officers know that I will give them money for their ‘aguas’ (fruit drinks) and for each bribe of 20 to 30 pesos, they let me keep on going.”

Enrique Álvarez del Castillo, known as Nuevo Laredo’s anti-corruption czar, said that in nine months, he received 111 complaints involving transit police. Most of them involve allegations that the drivers were forced to pay bribes; some involve abuse of authority.

The officer dismissals this year came as a result of investigations into those complaints, he said. Those 15 will never be allowed to work for the government again, he added. Other officers were suspended for two to three months as an administrative sanction.

“We know that the transit police force wants to be more ethical,” Álvarez del Castillo said. “But the problem is also with the habits of the drivers. They, too, promote corruption. They don’t accept responsibility for violating the law.”

He noted that some complaints weren’t filed because the motorist had to pay a bribe; rather, it was because the motorist had to pay more than he had offered in the first place. It’s the motorist who often starts the trouble, Álvarez del Castillo said, because he’s willing to give an officer money so that he (the driver) can continue to violate the law.

Mora said those drivers balk at going to traffic headquarters to pay their fine and register their vehicle properly, preferring instead to just pay the police officer to look the other way.

In one instance of alleged corruption, several officers were fired after investigators said they took a bribe to let a suspected drunk driver go after he and others with him were arrested.

“The person gave the officers a $50 bill. They got out of the patrol unit and went back to the place where they had been arrested,” said Oscar Siller, Mora’s assistant. “Mayor (Daniel) Peña ordered an investigation, and then continued the process to terminate the officers. They let down the agency.”

Mora said he will continue his efforts to fight corruption, but said the public needs to cooperate. He asked the public to stop offering money to police officers.