Fed up with the recent wave of criminal violence in the area, lakeside inhabitants finally seem to be taking to heart official pleas for citizen collaboration with law enforcement authorities.
While many have started taking advantage of widely publicized anonymous tip hotlines, others seem more than ready to take the law into their own hands.
Chapala police chief Reynol Contreras reported that witnesses of an incident described as an attempted abduction jumped into action early Monday, May 21.
The incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. in Ajijic near the intersection of the central highway and Calle Juarez. A number of people who were out on the street at that hour spotted a white Nissan Tsuru sedan pull off the roadway. Two men were seen jumping out of the vehicle and making a grab for two male pedestrians. While several witnesses tried to intervene, pelting the suspects and their car with loose rocks, others immediately got on the horn to the authorities.
According to Contreras, a flood of emergency calls were received at Chapala police headquarters, the Ajijic Delegacion office and on the new cellular phones distributed to municipal police patrols. Additional calls went out to the Mexican Army hotline. Police and soldiers promptly arrived on the scene to quell the fracas.The police chief said the presumed victims claimed the men in the car intended to kidnap them. The version the alleged culprits told police was that the incident was simply an altercation for reasons that were not explained. All four men were detained briefly at the Chapala police station before being turned over to state police for questioning and further investigation.
Another possible abduction reported Sunday evening at the San Juan Cosala Malecon was foiled under similar circumstances by angry, rock-hurling residents.
Contreras said the Ajijic incident is proof that when citizens use emergency numbers the moment they see something amiss, they allow police to respond in a timely manner and stop criminals in their tracks.
The chief said he is already seeing a payoff from the Chapala Assist 24/7 Emergency Quick Response System, with cell phone numbers for direct contact with police units patrolling ten districts. He noted that emergency calls, as well as anonymous tips sent through different channels, have spiked sharply in the past ten days.
On the downside, it appears that the authorities may be getting some false leads on locating and apprehending criminals. Over the past two weeks there have been at least three reports of state police battering down doors and barging into the private property of ordinary, upstanding citizens. Local officials have yet to comment on these unsettling events.