Public Security

03/11/08 - Brazil

The Ministry of Justice awarded to Mato Grosso, through the National Penitentiary Department (Depen), resources with a value of R$14,850 million that will be used next year on the construction of the Youth and Adults Prison in Várzea Grande. The prison will be the state’s biggest in terms of physical space, and will have a capacity of 421 (378 collective and 43 individual cells).

03/11/08 - China

"Drug control is a long running battle," says a slogan painted on a wall in Jiele Village, in an area of southwest China popular with tourists. Nearby, armed volunteers of a local militia that assists the police in fighting drug trafficking are patrolling in camouflage gear. Jiele is on the border with Myanmar, adjacent to the notorious Golden Triangle, one of Asia's main opium producing areas. Wang Han, the village's Party secretary recalled how in the early 1980s, increasing number of local residents began to use opium and drug-use exacerbated poverty in the community. In 1989 China's first case of intravenously transmitted AIDS was discovered in the village. "Drugs destroy families. I have seen at least ten couples divorce because of drug use," he said with a heavy heart. Other villages bordering Myanmar have been suffering from the same problem.

03/11/08 - Macedonia

Minister of Interior Gordana Jankuloska opened Monday the new Idrizovo Training Center, established following the Police Academy transformation, which is now part of the MoI's Public Security Bureau. Minister Jankuloska told course participants that wearing a police uniform means pride, but also responsibility, courage and loyalty. Referring to the MoI's activities in the past 100 days of the new Government, Jankuloska stressed that Macedonia could serve as a model in the fight against organized crime.

"We have shown that fight against crime cannot be and must not be selective, but with equal intensity towards all", she stated. Vice Premier for European Affairs Ivica Bocevski, who attended the ceremony said that police reforms and fight against corruption is one of the most successful elements of Macedonia's Euro-integration story, adding that the third benchmark related to police reforms has been fully met. "I am convinced that the Republic of Macedonia possesses the political, administrative, institutional and civil capacity to begin EU accession talks as early as tomorrow", underlined Vice Premier Bocevski.

30/10/08 - Mexico

The arrest of senior officials shows the government’s resolve in fighting drug traffickers—and that the rot in law enforcement reaches the top

At last the government seemed to be enjoying some success in its battle against the drug gangs. On October 25th Eduardo Arellano Félix, a leader of the Tijuana “cartel”, was arrested, the last of five brothers still at large who had run what was once one of the world’s most powerful trafficking syndicates. Tijuana has been the scene of a vicious battle between drug factions and the security forces, with over 150 murders in the past month alone. Mr Arellano (pictured above) was captured by Mexican officials acting on information from the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the US Marshals Service. It was an example of the kind of co-operation that officials in both countries hope will bring success for the crackdown against the drug gangs launched by Felipe Calderón when he took office as Mexico’s president almost two years ago.

But only two days later came news of more worrying recent arrests, those of two top officials at the attorney-general’s office who were among those supposedly leading the crackdown. Miguel Colorado González was in charge of assigning police to organised-crime investigations; Fernando Rivera Hernández was one of his deputies, in charge of intelligence. Three more junior officials were also indicted, and 30 were fired pending further investigation. According to investigators, the arrested officials had been passing information to the Sinaloa cartel, a more powerful rival to the Tijuana mob. They had received up to $450,000 a month in bribes, in some cases going back several years. In a brief reference, Mr Calderón said the arrests were evidence of the government’s seriousness in fighting crime. But if the allegations are true, they show that the rot in Mexican law-enforcement reaches right to the top. They also reveal a failure to carry out basic checks on the personal finances of senior officials.

24/10/08 - Croatia

Croatia declared a war on organised crime last night after one of the country’s most prominent newspaper publishers was killed by a car bomb in the capital, Zagreb. Ivo Pukanic, 47, the publisher of the leading weekly Nacional, known for its investigations into corruption and organised crime, was killed after an explosive device was detonated beneath his new Lexus car outside the magazine’s offices. Niko Franic, 38, the marketing manager, was also killed in the blast.

23/10/08 - UK

As crime figures rocketed up 22 per cent from last year the Government has accused police of covering up violent crimes to keep statistics down. The revelation comes as the Home Office released its latest violent crime figures which showed a huge increase from the same quarter in 2007.The category includes serious assault, murder, attempted murder and manslaughter. Officials said 13 forces were asked to re-examine their figures after they discovered some serious assaults were being recorded in a lower category of offence. They admitted the undercounting could have been going on for more than ten years.

09/10/08 - Mexico

Justice officials from the Americas and the Caribbean agreed to reinforce border security, at a meeting highlighting the spread of Mexican drug cartels across the region. They agreed to strengthen "border security ... with a view to preventing and counteracting crime and violence," said a final statement from a two-day security conference of the 34-member Organization of American States. The meeting underlined growing ties between Mexican drug cartels and countries south of the border, including Colombia, Argentina and Costa Rica.

It also underlined that Latin America has the world's highest murder rate, with 27 killed for every 100,000 inhabitants. Suspected drug-related murders are reported almost daily in Mexico with almost 3,500 killed so far this year, despite a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon almost two years ago. Drug trafficking was a major concern, with all the world's cocaine -- around 950 tonnes per year -- produced in South America, said Antonio Acosta, secretary general of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Drug users in Europe and the United States consume almost all of it, and Central American and the Caribbean "are trapped in the crossfire of drugs and arms," Acosta added.

08/10/08 - Italy

Italy is struggling to contain the country's most powerful mafia despite deploying 500 elite paratroopers to the mob's heartland of Campania.

The deployment of soldiers was hailed by the government as evidence that it was no longer prepared to tolerate the Camorra's murderous rule The red berets, drawn from the equivalent of Britain's Parachute Regiment, are manning road blocks and patrolling the streets in a cluster of mafia-controlled towns on the outskirts of Naples. The region, in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius, has Europe's highest murder rate. The government ordered the troops on to the streets, along with 400 extra police, after the Camorra mafia gunned down six African immigrant workers in what police suspect was part of a turf war over drug dealing. The attack, on Sept 18, was one of the bloodiest in years, the latest chapter in a decades-long reign of terror conducted by the Camorra, the Neapolitan cousin of Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia.

The organisation's iron grip on the blighted southern region of Campania is told in gripping detail by an award-winning film, Gomorrah, which opens in UK cinemas on Friday. The deployment of the heavily armed soldiers, among them veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, was hailed by the government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as evidence that it was no longer prepared to tolerate the Camorra's murderous rule. But less than 24 hours after the deployment began, the Camorra carried out another deadly hit, right under the noses of the paratroopers. Two men pulled up on a motorbike outside a social club in the town of Casal di Principe, a mafia fiefdom, and pumped 18 bullets into Stanislao Cantelli, 60, as he was playing cards. Police say Cantelli was an innocent man who had no prior convictions – his only crime was to be the uncle of two informers. The two pentiti, or supergrasses, are in hiding, under constant police protection. Killing their uncle was the next best way for the mafia to punish them for their betrayal.

08/10/08 - Latin America

Violent crime in Latin America claims more than 100,000 lives a year -- more than any single disease -- and the average homicide rate is 27 per 100,000 population, making this one of the most violent regions in the world.

This reflects a severe crisis that requires coordinated multi-sectoral actions, agreed high-level officials from 34 governments who met Tuesday and Wednesday in Mexico in the "first meeting of public security ministers of the Americas", organised by the Organisation of American States (OAS). In the final declaration signed by the ministers, they committed themselves to mounting a more coordinated effort against violence, harmonise laws, strengthen prevention policies and educational and awareness-raising programmes, modernise, purge and professionalise police forces, and engage in a broad sharing and exchange of experiences with civil society groups involved in prevention and other areas. "The ministers had a flash of genius -- they discovered that there is a public safety crisis. They also committed themselves to what has been obvious for years: that security policies must reflect a balance between immediate and long-term measures, especially involving education and prevention," political scientist Sergio Fernández, an expert on drug trafficking, told IPS.

According to Inter-American Development Bank estimates, violence costs Latin America as much as 15 percent of its combined annual gross domestic product (GDP). For its part, the World Bank reports that 75 percent of all kidnappings worldwide are committed in Latin America, a region that accounts for just eight percent of the world’s population. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) "World Report on Violence and Health" put the average global homicide rate in 2000 at 8.8 per 100,000 population a year.

Although the Latin American average is 27 murders per 100,000 people, the situation in several cities is alarming, with as many as 120 homicides per 100,000 people, says an OAS report distributed at the two-day meeting in Mexico. In Central America, the average climbs to 36 per 100,000, with 55 per 100,000 in El Salvador in 2006, 45 per 100,000 in Guatemala and nearly 43 per 100,000 in Honduras. In the Caribbean, the most violent country is Jamaica (49 per 100,000), while Venezuela (45 per 100,000) and civil war-torn Colombia (37 per 100,000) share that dubious distinction in South America.

The main victims of violent crime in the region are young people, with murder the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 29, and the homicide rate for this group standing at 83 per 100,000 population. The region not only suffers from extreme violence due to homicides, the great majority of which are the result of criminal activities, mainly drug trafficking, but from many other day-to-day common crimes like violent robberies, kidnappings, sexual abuse, criminal youth gangs or domestic violence, said OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza.

10/09/08 - West Africa

Late last year, four French tourists were gunned down in Mauritania where they were picnicking by a roadside on Christmas Eve, prompting the cancellation of the 2008 Lisbon-Dakar Rally. Identified as an al-Qaida "sleeper cell" by local officials, the two shooters were later picked up in Guinea-Bissau, where it was revealed that one of the men had lived there for two years and spoke the local Creole language.

The two men, along with three suspected accomplices, all Mauritanian nationals, were later deported to their home country. But the inability of law enforcement to function on a very basic level gave the story a disturbing twist: Law enforcement officials in the region eventually managed to locate the Mauritanians, with the assistance from French police, but not until after they had fled, completely undetected, across Senegal. In the end, the militants were only caught in Guinea-Bissau after they were discovered trying to photograph French officials there while plotting an attack against them.

Equally troubling were statements by police interrogators that the assassins were belligerent and defiantly anti-Western -- and promised more such attacks to come. "West Africa has become a black hole where any kind of person can come and operate or hide, be they terrorists or criminals," said Mark Mazzitelli, the head of the West and Central Africa office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), according to a January report by Reuters.

09/09/08 - Mexico

Mexican President Felipe Calderon wants to hike spending on fighting organized crime and drug gangs by 39 percent next year, as rampant violent crime poses the biggest test of his presidency. Calderon requested the increase in his government's 2009 budget proposal, submitted to Congress on Monday, but did not give details of how he would spend any extra funds. "I have asked for this increase of nearly 40 percent because we know that today security, justice and order are the principal challenge facing Mexico," Calderon said. Opposition parties are expected to back the request. A surge in drug gang killings to more than 2,700 so far this year, as powerful cartels battle the army and each other, and a wave of often fatal kidnappings, triggered a protest march of more than 150,000 people in the capital last month.

08/09/08 - UN

United Nations peacekeeping forces need to take a more coordinated approach to prevent, disrupt and dismantle organized crime in the countries where they operate, a top UN policing official said today. Andrew Hughes, the UN Police Adviser, warned that such crime could be a “major spoiler” of UN efforts to restore peace and security to countries that are gradually emerging from conflict. “Dealing with organized crime is incredibly complex, but one of the advantages we have in post-conflict societies is that because state infrastructures have often broken down, organized crime is more visible,” he said. “However, because these countries often do not have fully functioning legal systems, dealing with organized crime is a particular challenge.”

02/09/08 - UK

A thirst for "Robocop justice" has made Britain the most expensive country to police in the world and created an environment where Britons have become passive bystanders, according to a report on Tuesday. The independent think-tank Reform's report: "The Lawful Society" says as a percentage of GDP, Britain spends the most of any OECD nation on law and order -- 2.6 percent in 2005 -- with 26 billion pounds spent on criminal justice in 2006-2007. That is nearly 40 percent more than in 1997-98, but as spending has risen, Britons have become uneasy about preventing crime, with six out of 10 people unlikely for example to challenge teenagers vandalising a bus shelter. In Germany, six out of 10 would, the report says.

And while three-quarters of Britons believe the police and courts are responsible for dealing with anti-social behaviour, in France and Germany less than half of people think that should be the case. "We need to slay the myth the Home Secretary is responsible for every stabbing and car theft on the streets of Britain," said the report's author Elizabeth Truss, Reform's deputy director. "We have to take back responsibility from Robocop."

28/08/08 - UK

Stop-and-search tactics to curb knife crime could alienate young men and drive them into the arms of gangs, it was claimed today. Laura Richards, the former head of the Metropolitan Police's murder prevention unit, said the force's use of the method could make gangs stronger. The criminal behavioural psychologist said that the tactics were just a 'sticking plaster' on the problem of knife crime.

Scotland Yard launched an anti-knife crime operation using stop-and-search earlier this year after an alarming surge of stabbings of teenagers in the capital. But the Metropolitan Police said stop-and-search was only one part of its strategy and it sent a 'visible message' to young people that its aim was to keep them safe. Just this weekend 18-year-old Charles Jnr Hendricks, known as CJ, was knifed to death in Walthamstow, North-East London, on the spot where an Olympic handover celebration was due to be held. The youngster is the 24th teenager to be murdered in London this year.

27/08/08 - Brazil

The central reason of the amplified process of violence and territorial fragmentation that the city of Rio de Janeiro lives together with many others brazilian urban centers relies on the transformation of the sovereign power, in thesis a State monopoly, into a good of “market”. In this process of “privatization”, the local power has become object of dispute and base for the explosion of the city into private territories. Naturally, as any other “market”, the agents that act in them seek to amplify the control of the “business”; legitimate and fortify their “brand”; defeat their rivals and occupy their territories. In this frame, the amplification of the social conflicts become inevitable.

19/08/08 - Brazil

A study shows that most of the residents in the metropolitan region do not trust the police. The evaluation is positive in the help to the victims; Civil Police rates are more positive.

The comunitary vigilance of the Military Police (PM) in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro is the worst given service by the PM, according to the residents evaluation of the area: 70.3% of the population considers it bad or very bad, while only 17.6% considers it good or very good the distribution of the soldiers in the neighbourhoods.

This is one of the results of a survey made by 30 universitary researchers, working for the Iuperj (University Institut of Research of Rio de Janeiro), that showed yet that 56.1% of the residents in the area do not trust in the Military Police, while 36% of the population partly trusts and 6.9% fully trusts.

19/08/08 - SA / Netherlands

The South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Netherlands police service have forged a partnership to create a platform to share ideas, skills and training. Speaking at the signing of an agreement between the two police services, Deputy National Commissioner Mala Singh said the partnership was a culmination of three years of negotiations. She said the partnership would see the two countries beefing-up crime prevention operations in the two countries.

“The focus of the partnership will be to establish mutual cooperation to improve policing in both countries by exchanging knowledge, skills and experience in relation to law enforcement, investigation of crime, crime prevention, public order and public safety,” said Commissioner Singh. Countries cannot afford to function in isolation, she said, adding that the globally connected community had made it easier for criminals to exploit a lack of understanding and participation in global initiatives. Commissioner Singh said the international sharing of information, skills, knowledge and experience were crucial to the development of a country and its people.

19/08/08 - Algeria

At least 43 young applicants killed and 38 wounded while waiting to enlist at police recruitment centre

At least 43 people were killed when a car laden with explosives rammed into a police academy in Algeria, the country's interior ministry said today.The ministry said that a further 38 people were wounded in the attack, which happened early today, in the Issers district of Boumerdes, 35 miles east of the capital, Algiers.

The attack occurred as young applicants were in line, waiting to register at the local police academy. A security official described the incident as "a bloodbath".No immediate claim for responsibility was reported, but Algeria has suffered regular attacks blamed on militants linked to al-Qaida.

In the past 18 months more than 200 people have been killed in Algeria in attacks claimed by or suspected to be the work of the group.

19/08/08 - Mexico

Suspected drug-trafficking groups are killing Mexico's future police commanders before they can even emerge from the much-touted academy that is supposed to transform them into world-class officers.

Suspected drug-trafficking groups are killing Mexico's future police commanders before they can even emerge from the much-touted academy that is supposed to transform them into world-class officers.

In the past two weeks, five officers-in-training have been gunned down while traveling to and from the Public Security Superior Academy in the central state of San Luis Potosi.

Analysts said the new tactic was a warning to both the cadets and the government, which is waging an unprecedented fight against drug cartels.

"These groups no longer have any fear that by attacking police there will be some type of retribution," said Mexico City police instructor Arturo Yanez, a former adviser to the federal attorney general's office. "Their only limit is their imagination."

The attacks sparked a partial strike this week by some academy students, who are demanding the right to carry guns and are calling for police roadblocks to intercept drug gunmen.

18/08/08 - China

As an “only child” generation reaches adulthood, problems such as rising crime rates are appearing

China is gradually getting rid of the vestiges of its Communist past. But, the demographic policy of the 1980s and 1990s planted a time bomb, and its effects are just starting to be felt.

Its best-known aspect is the one-child policy, first put in place in 1978 and still in practice, though in a more relaxed form. Today, a couple made up of two only-children is allowed to have two children. In rural regions, a couple whose first child is a girl is normally authorized to have a second. But in the 1980s and 1990s, the one-child policy was strictly applied, albeit not uniformly, across regions. Parents were penalized for births “outside quota”. They were fined and were financially responsible for the education and health care of “extra” children.

18/08/08 - Senegal

Cocaine smuggling is fanning political turbulence and undermining investment confidence in West Africa, where drugs experts say Latin American gangs threaten to transform small nations into "narco-states".

Unexpected seizures from Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania to Sierra Leone and Senegal illustrate a haphazard response to drugs syndicates that run rings around law enforcement agencies despite help from the United States and European countries.

The danger comes at a critical time for West Africa, where several states are rebuilding after civil wars and the region is of growing interest to the most adventurous frontier investors.

"It is a huge threat," said Emmanuelle Bernard, West Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank. "The money from the drug trade is competing with the institution-building, which is what these countries need to be doing now."

18/08/08 - United States

L.A.'s biggest gangs have gone international; our law enforcement must do the same.

The two fastest-growing and most powerful gangs in the world are homegrown products of Los Angeles. The Mara Salvatrucha gang, or MS-13, and the 18th Street gang, known in Central America as Mara 18, sprang up in Pico-Union and the densely populated neighborhoods around MacArthur Park. But unlike many local street gangs, these two were entrepreneurial: They recruited Central American immigrants across the city and then expanded farther -- throughout Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Conservative estimates put MS-13's ranks at 20,000 and 18th Street's at 30,000 worldwide.

Stopping street gangs is no longer a local matter -- a point driven home to me during a symposium in El Salvador. During the conference, two points of consensus emerged. First, MS-13 and 18th Street have become an international concern -- indeed, even Interpol is now involved in the fight. Second, past strategies to handle these gangs have failed.

In the 1990s, the U.S. strategy centered on deportation: Undocumented gang members convicted of crimes were sent back to their country of origin after their prison sentences. But this only exacerbated the problem, spreading both gangs like a virus until they grew into transnational "super-gangs" with countless cliques in southern Mexico and Central America in addition to their presence in California, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Virginia, Oregon and even Canada.

News

18/08/08 - Mexico

With the world fixated on Vladimir Putin's expansionist exploits in Georgia, a different sort of assault against a democracy south of the U.S. border is getting scant attention. But it is equally alarming.

Mexico is engaged in a life-or-death struggle against organized crime. Last week six more law enforcement officials were killed in the line of duty battling the country's drug cartels. This brings the death toll in President Felipe Calderón's blitz against organized crime to 4,909 since Dec. 1, 2006.

A number of the dead have been gangsters but they also include journalists, politicians, judges, police and military, and civilians. For perspective on how violent Mexico has become, consider that the total number of Americans killed in Iraq since March 2003 is 4,142.

Kidnapping and armed robbery numbers have also soared. In Tijuana, a kidnapping epidemic has provoked an exodus of upper-middle-class families across the U.S. border in search of safety.

As this column has pointed out many times, one reason that security has so deteriorated in the past decade is the demand in the U.S. for illegal narcotics, and the U.S. government's crackdown on the Caribbean trafficking route. Mexican cartels have risen up to serve the U.S. market, and their earnings have made them rich and well-armed.

The victims of last week's killing spree include the deputy police chief of the state of Michoacan and one of his men, a detective in the state of Chihuahua, and a deputy police chief in the state of Quintana Roo. As of July, 449 police and military officers have died in the Calderón offensive, further underscoring the price Mexico is paying for the U.S. "war on drugs." But the costs go well beyond the loss of life.

18/08/08 - Mexico

With the world fixated on Vladimir Putin's expansionist exploits in Georgia, a different sort of assault against a democracy south of the U.S. border is getting scant attention. But it is equally alarming.

Mexico is engaged in a life-or-death struggle against organized crime. Last week six more law enforcement officials were killed in the line of duty battling the country's drug cartels. This brings the death toll in President Felipe Calderón's blitz against organized crime to 4,909 since Dec. 1, 2006.

A number of the dead have been gangsters but they also include journalists, politicians, judges, police and military, and civilians. For perspective on how violent Mexico has become, consider that the total number of Americans killed in Iraq since March 2003 is 4,142.

Kidnapping and armed robbery numbers have also soared. In Tijuana, a kidnapping epidemic has provoked an exodus of upper-middle-class families across the U.S. border in search of safety.

As this column has pointed out many times, one reason that security has so deteriorated in the past decade is the demand in the U.S. for illegal narcotics, and the U.S. government's crackdown on the Caribbean trafficking route. Mexican cartels have risen up to serve the U.S. market, and their earnings have made them rich and well-armed.

The victims of last week's killing spree include the deputy police chief of the state of Michoacan and one of his men, a detective in the state of Chihuahua, and a deputy police chief in the state of Quintana Roo. As of July, 449 police and military officers have died in the Calderón offensive, further underscoring the price Mexico is paying for the U.S. "war on drugs." But the costs go well beyond the loss of life.

14/08/08 - Great Britain

A generation of boys is growing up with inadequate male role models and see crime as a short cut to wealth and power, a minister has warned.

David Lammy said boys were seduced by the "get rich or die trying" lifestyle - echoing the title of an album by US rapper 50 Cent. And the problem was not just confined to those from poor backgrounds.

Middle class children were often starved of parental guidance too, he writes in The New Statesman. "While there may be young men on estates missing fathers who left them, there are also children in Middle Britain whose parents become strangers in a culture of long working hours," said Mr Lammy.

The Tottenham MP - who was himself brought up by a single mother - called for more male role models in the community, of the kind he had when he was growing up. He also urged society not to "demonise" single mothers - blaming wider factors such as the disappearance of traditional male jobs and the rise of consumerism. "In society, the fetishisation of money and the growth of consumerism add new pressure. "In a "bling culture", criminality easily becomes a short cut to symbols of wealth and power that will otherwise take years of hard work to achieve.

11/08/08 - Mexico

Indignation over the lack of public security in Mexico, fuelled by the kidnapping and murder of the teenage son of a well-known businessman, apparently by police officers, prompted the announcement of an Aug. 30 march to protest the growing levels of crime and demand more effective law enforcement.

Civic groups, mainly linked to the business sector, are organising the event, which they hope will draw more than one million participants.

Meanwhile the authorities have offered, for the umpteenth time, legal reforms and new police units specialised in fighting kidnappings, dozens of which are committed every month.

According to studies and opinion polls, 98 percent of crimes in Mexico go unsolved and 86 percent of the population has little to no confidence in the police.

Public insecurity in Mexico, a longstanding problem that has given this country a dangerous reputation, has been getting worse in spite of the numerous legal reforms that have been implemented, such as the gradual adoption of oral trials open to the public, and the different government programmes presented in the last two decades.

07/08/08 - Mexico

Ismael Placencia, president of the “Confederation of Industrial Chambers” of Mexico asserted at a press conference that the high indices of insecurity that exist in that country inhibit investment. Insecurity costs the country 120 billion dollars a year, the equivalent of 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; the Inter-American Development Bank points out that this cost is higher than that of the yearly production of the agricultural, mining, construction and power and water generation sectors, which represent 12 percent of the annual GDP.

Placencia pointed out that insecurity is not only the responsibility of the authorities but also that of the citizenry in general. He added that the government must exercise the law to the fullest, especially in the case of police who are involved with organized crime.

Mexico’s Attorney General, Eduardo Medina, denies that the violence in Mexico is similar to that which flailed Colombia. In his judgment, Mexico lacks the circumstances which Colombia experienced, in which para-military groups on one side confronted FARC on the other side. He added that “ FARC lost its initial logic and now they are narcotraffic organized crime groups.” In the past decade, Colombia faced a “real risk of collapse of the democratic institutions” because of the cartels’ accumulated powers.

According to Medina, Mexico must learn from the Colombian lesson, particularly in the “reconstruction of the social fabric in communities dramatically affected by narcotraffic”, such as Bogota and Medellin

05/08/08 - Curitba, Brazil

Public Security in the 21st Century was the theme of the last speech of the Executive Conference of Public Security for the South America, of the International Association of Chief of Police (IACP), this Tuesday (5th), in Curitba. The former secretary of Interpol, Raymond Kendall, that was the general secretary of the organization for fifteen years, spoke about the importance of security is attached with public policies for poor communities.

“This is the challenge for the 21st century. The politicians expect the police to solve problems directly related to social questions, but the police is not ready for that. Many areas are out of the State control. It’s not just the case of Rio de Janeiro, but also some suburbs of Paris and London, for example”, said Kendall.

He considers it is necessary to establish a bridge between what is happening in the law enforcement and the government interest. “Nowadays, the fault of everything that goes wrong ends up being dropped on the policemen. If something doesn’t happen on the political field, the security won’t be improved. The police has to find ways to show this to them. It is the policeman who is in the streets every day and in many cases knows deeply the needs of the community. This knowledge should be used to be applied in social policies”, said.

“We have to know who dominates these locations. Is it the State or criminal groups? One of the biggest problems in these areas is the angry young men, with several problems. This anger is orientated against the state. These people are becoming marginalized, many doesn’t want to go to school or work. They don’t get the parents orientation and end up turning into our biggest challenge”, said.

Kendall mentioned the Pronasci (National Program of Public Security with Citizenship), of the federal government, as an attempt to operate social policies together with public security. “It is a very ambitious project. In truth, the only one I saw in the world with a high budget to work on security together with social policies and it seems to be going in the right direction”, highlighted.

The speech made by the former secretary of Interpol pleased all the participants. “Kendall’s speech has confirmed all of our expectancies. We received essential lessons for our life and for the policing activity”, said the assistant chief of police of the Capital’s Police division, Vilson Toledo.

“I agree with him in several aspects, especially when he spoke that the police is too solicited. Beyond that, we need laws that can be enforceable and that attend to the population needs. Many times we make arrests in the morning and by the end of the day the criminal is already freed because of the legislation in force”, highlighted the chief delegado of the 10th subdivision of Londrina, Sérgio Luiz Barroso.

05/08/08 - Israel

A police intelligence coordinator from Eilat was arrested by the Police Investigations Department on Monday after being suspected of communicating with criminals in the city.

An additional three civilians were arrested in connection with the investigation.

Colleagues of the officer told Israel Radio it was perfectly logical for the coordinator to be in touch with criminals, as such activity was part of the police officer's job description.

The suspect was interrogated by the PID in Jerusalem. Police will seek to extend the suspect's custody at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court.

04/08/08 - Brazil

With the theme “Police Acting in Border Regions”, the general director of The Federal Police, Luiz Fernando Corrêa, initiated his speech on the Executive Conference of Public Security for the South America – IACP, in Curitiba, speaking about the concept of border within the context of public security. “We have to reexamine our attitudes concerning the borders to accomplish the promises of approximation of our peoples”, said Corrêa.

For the General Director of The Federal Police, the control of the border should not be reduced to the physical presence and the state’s bureaucracy. Combating the actions of the organized crime demands intelligent acting in two fronts: security intelligence and capacity of the countries to control its borders. “We have technology and intelligence to make this combat against the organized crime, to control who gets in and who gets out. Our challenge today is to control the cybernetic crime, as in the virtual world there isn’t borders anymore”, commented.

10/07/08 - Brazil

There will be no Democratic State of Right without a solid republic and an equally strong structure of security. This statement comes from the minister of Justice, Tarso Genro, on Thursday morning, while participating in Brasilia to the opening of the IIIrd Meeting of Ploice Chiefs from the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).

“The policeman has to respond to the violence against him and against society. He must act inside within the legal framework and have at his disposal the necessary human and technologic apparatus”, emphasized the minister. “It is necessary to have respect for human rights, like the Federal Police is having”.

08/07/08 - Brazil

After a week's implementation, the denunciations made to the disk-militia reveal important information about the acts of the group. According to the Legislative Assembly of Rio, there are already militias acting in the Metropolitan region as well as in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro. 160 calls were registered in the first week of functioning, from June 30th until this Monday.

The president of the Militias PCI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry), depute Marcelo Freixo (PSOL), revealed that some denunciations were about the action of the militias in areas that so far were unknown by the police. According to these informations, these groups used to concentrate only in the capital.

“We were impressed with the information about these groups already acting in other municipalities. Maybe nowadays the militias are the most dangerous organized crime group in action in Rio de Janeiro”, declared.

07/07/08 - Brazil

A police chase that resulted in the cerebral death of a 3 year old child, in Rio de Janeiro, was considered “disastrous” this Monday by the State Public Security Secretary, José Mariano Beltrame.

Two soldiers of the Military Police would mistaken, during the chase of a supposed stolen car in Tijuca, north zone of the city, the car which in the inside was the boy, his 9 months old brother and his mother. The car was shot 15 times on Sunday night in the neighbourhood, surrounded by 19 favelas, according to the police.

“I understand the action of the policemen as disastrous”, said Beltrame, in a collective interview convoked to take care of this incident.

30/06/08 - Brazil

The plague of crime and corruption is the biggest bearish argument against the sustainable growth of Brazil's economy and bigger market gains. It is a corrosive and threatening crisis because as we all learned in high school, the foundation of any prosperous and civil society or market takes root in the rule of law.

28/06/08 - Brazil

A lost bullet from a policeman, hitting an innocent person, causes revolt. The army’s “natural” brutality in the combat against the drug trafficking can also be targeted with critics. But what one does never expect is members of the army getting civilians and delivering them to drug trafficking gangs as requested by the latest. The ministry of Justice, saying that the responsibility of the act is uniquely from the soldiers which acted that way – “conduct deviance” – and that there was no lack of commandment, can be only to appease the tempers. But, from the technical point of view, it is wrong. There was a lack not only of immediate commandment, but also from himself, and in the limit, from the President of the Republic.

What occurs in Brazil is a situation of lack of control from the President of the Republic before the republican institutions and his functions. The army needs to be in the favela? Well, if the government is clear that it is necessary, and that will maintain it there, can’t by any mean ask the soldiers to be calm, and not to hit back to provocations. It sounds like a bad taste joke in the troops. It reveals the lack of comprehension of what is happening in Rio de Janeiro. It is the complete alienation concerning the real conditions of the people living in the favela, the people involved in the drug-trafficking, and even worse, the lack of capacity to realize what is going on with the soldier that walks up the hill.

27/06/08 - Mexico

A high-ranking federal police official and his bodyguard were assassinated here Thursday, the latest in a string of killings attributed to drug cartels seeking revenge against law enforcement agencies.

The killings appear to be part of a recent coordinated effort by drug cartels to go after the federal police agency, which is generally thought to be less corrupt than most state and local police forces. Thousands of federal police officers have been dispatched around the country in the past year and a half to confront the cartels and sometimes to disarm entire local police departments suspected of aiding drug traffickers.

25/06/08 - China

The State Anti-Drug Committee held a full-member conference here on Tuesday to study recent instructions by state and Communist Party leaders, who have demanded that the current anti-drug campaign be considered a long-term task and the subject of persistent efforts. The leaders ordered a continuation of the people's war against drugs and urged significant achievements in publicizing anti-drug knowledge, cracking down on the drug trade in accordance with the law, strengthening management in the anti-drug campaign, and carrying out international cooperation.

25/06/08 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

The final report of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry of the Prison’s System indicates that the “First Command of the Capital” (PCC), a crime organization, dominates the Centre of Provisional Detention of Pinheiros, in the south zone of São Paulo. In the report of the depute Domingos Dutra (PT-MA), the prison appears as the fifth worse of Brazil – it has 504 vacancies, but it shelters 1,026 inmates, according to the report. “The director of the prison confirmed that PCC not only dominates this prison, but a several more in São Paulo and said that he cannot see solutions or alternatives to diminish the power of PCC, due to the organization’s force and having grown very much”, affirms Dutra in the document.

25/06/08 - Rio, Brazil

Bandits circulate armed and write names of drug trafficking factions in restored houses in the Favela of Providência. One day after the Army leave the Favela of Providência, in the Centre of Rio de Janeiro, following the Electoral Justice of Rio having seized the works of the project “Social Cement”, drug traffickers came back this Wednesday to mark their territory, as revealed by a report published by the newspaper O Globo this Thursday.

Inscriptions with the initials of a criminal drug-trafficking faction appeared in some brand-restored houses by the social project – the letters were written with pieces of bricks. Military Policemen of the Special Areas Policing Grouping (Gpae) were doing the patrolling in the favela, while cars of the Nazareth Cerqueira Ostensive Rounds (Ronac) circulated around the favela.

24/06/08 - Rio, Brazil

Orange posters with the sentences “Police out of UFF”, “The university belongs to the people, no police!” and, “Down with repression!” spread out through the Institute of Human Sciences and Philosophy of the University, in Gragoatá, give the tone of how the proposal to create a graduation in Public Security is being received by some students. The Project has been approved by the Anthropology department and is at discussion in the institute, according to the report of Natália Soares, of the Tuesday edition of Megazine.

The fear of the students seems to be that the course will attract policemen to the campus, in a polemic that reminds the crashes between André Matias (André Ramiro) and his faculty colleagues, in the film “Elite Troop”. In the film, Matias hid from other students of his course, including his girlfriend, to be a Military Policeman. When his job is revealed, he gets in conflict with the rest of the class.

18/06/08 - Brazil

Integrants of the public prosecution service from the whole country meet in Brasilia this Wednesday until Friday, to discuss ways to combat the police violence. In the symposium Civil Society and the Oversight of Police Violence, the sociological and legal aspects of this issue will be discussed, besides the importance of the external organisms of control and the investigations made directly by the Public Prosecution.

Promoted by the Public Prosecution Service of The Federal District and Territories (MPDFT) and by the Superior School of the Public Prosecution Service of the Union (ESPMU), the meeting will count with the presence of researchers, jurists, and representatives of the civil society from Brazil and United States.

17/06/08 - Brazil

The depute Alexandre Silveira (PPS-MG) presented a requirement (RCP 10/08) proposing the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry (PCI) to investigate the causes of urban violence. The requirement received the support of 182 deputes – eleven more than the minimum required.Silveira affirms that, to face the violence, the Chamber must not only propose the revision of the penal legislation, but investigate the real motives of this problem. “From a diagnosis, we can punctually face the mistakes of the State in the treatment of violence”, he said.

11/06/08 - China

As China’s influence spreads around the world, so too are its criminal gangs, writes Paul French. When it comes to what rises to the surface you cannot pick and choose – the good stuff and the scum both ascend. China’s much talked about “rise” is clearly a major factor driving the world economy. A legion of books argue that China’s economic rise will affect everything from the price of food to the cost of a barrel of oil and the country’s “soft power” is affecting everything from diplomacy to how aid budgets are apportioned in Africa, not to mention that Mandarin popping is up on the curriculum at expensive private schools. But, as a number of authors argue, China’s rise is also problematic.

09/06/08 - Basseterre, St.Kitts

St. Kitts and Nevis has sponsored a resolution on crime and violence at the just concluded General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Medellin, Colombia.

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by the CARICOM States and supported by all member states of the Western Hemispheric body, places the issue of Crime and Violence squarely on the agenda of the OAS, which has now resolved to take certain actions with regard to this escalating phenomenon that, is negatively impacting the quality of life in all member states.

05/06/08 - Kingston

UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today called for increased effort by all stakeholders to stem the illegal flow and use of small arms in Jamaica, saying gun control - combined with long-term social interventions - are critical to curb the armed violence that has enveloped the country.

The UN agencies issued their appeal as the world observes the Global Week of Action against Gun Violence, and as Jamaica confronts what has been reported as one of the bloodiest periods of gang- and gun-related homicides in the nation’s history.

29/05/08 - The Balkans

The Balkan area is, surprisingly, one of the safest in Europe. The report Crime and its Impact on the Balkans by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) belies enduring stereotypes of the region as a hotbed of organized crime and violence. People are as safe, or safer, on the streets and in their homes as they are in most parts of the world.

Released today, the study concludes that the Balkans have become a low-crime region after the decade-long turmoil that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia. But italso warns that links between business, politics and organized crime continue to hamper the region's path to stability.

28/05/08 - Culiacan, Mexico

Mexican police need bigger guns to fight increasingly violent drug gangs, a federal police chief said on Wednesday, after drug hitmen killed seven officers in the northern city of Culiacan.

"We need machine guns," said Gen. Rodolfo Cruz, the federal police force's link with the army in their joint 18-month-old war on Mexico's powerful drug cartels.

28/05/08 - Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

The governor of Rio de Janeiro state hit back at criticism by rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday, saying his policy of "confrontation" with drug gangs was protecting human rights.

Amnesty said in a report issued earlier in the day that Governor Sergio Cabral had adopted an "increasingly draconian and bellicose public stance on public security," with large-scale police operations that cost hundreds of lives.