One out of every four cops in the state of Jalisco has flunked the national police vetting exam, known as control de confianza.
This week, the last of Jalisco’s 21,345 officers took the nationally mandated test, designed to weed out corruption and untrustworthiness within Mexico’s diverse police forces.
The exam includes a string of psychological, drug and polygraph tests, as well as checks to see if officers are living beyond their means.
The program concluded almost a year behind schedule, largely due the lack of qualified personnel required to handle the exams.
Failing the test does not mean the officer in question is immediately axed. They may either seek a reevaluation – if their superiors agree – or be transferred to an administrative position that does not involve interaction with the public or security duties. Discharged officers are entitled to full severance pay and assistance in finding other work.
Critics of the program suggest many of the fired officers are quickly recruited by drug cartels. There have also been cases of loyal, long-serving officers being forced out of their jobs because they failed certain parts of the test.
In Jalisco, 23 out of every 100 officers failed the test – lower than the national average of around one in three. Authorities have not revealed how many of the 4,827 officers in question are still employed by their respective forces, although evidence suggests many – especially in Jalisco’s smaller and less populated municipalities – remain in their jobs.
In Tlajomulco, for instance, 86 officers who failed the test took out a legal injunction (amparo) allowing them to stay in their posts, at least for the time being. All, however, have been reassigned to less consequential work.
The testing program was mandated by former President Felipe Calderon as part of a judicial reform package passed in 2009. The reforms also include the introduction of oral trials by 2016, a deadline that Jalisco is making strenuous efforts to meet.