The futures of around 16 percent of all uniformed police officers in Jalisco are up in the air after they failed vetting and trustworthiness exams.
In total, 3,293 officers came up short in the nationally mandated evaluations, which included polygraph tests.
Few of the officers, however, have been suspended from their duties. The original plan was to either move them into civic-related duties within their forces or lay them off with the appropriate financial compensation.
Various factors have prevented this, sources say. One is that police forces have few replacements immediately on hand.
In addition, many of the affected officers have obtained legal representation and are fighting for their jobs. The process is drawn out and complicated, and is likely to drag on for some time.
The officers in legal limbo come from both municipal and state ranks and many are aggrieved at the manner in which they have been treated and “ostracized” by their superiors.
One officer in Tonala told Spanish-language daily Mural that they are being “treated like delinquents,” and marginalized into separate groups.
All police officers in Mexico are obliged to take the trustworthiness exams, part of reforms to Mexico’s judicial system passed by Congress in 2014. The stated aim is to root out all those who may have links to organized crime.