The
Secretariat of Citizen Security of Mexico City (;
SSC) is the uniformed law enforcement agency of
Mexico City, headquartered in
Venustiano Carranza. It manages a combined force of over 100,000 officers in Mexico City. The
Mexico City Police (Policía de la Ciudad de México) is the police department of
Mexico City. Mexico City contains the seat of the federal
Mexican government. There are 8.84 million residents of the city, according to 2009 estimates, and another 21.1 million people in the metropolitan region. The SSC is charged with maintaining public order and safety in the center of Mexico City where public insecurity and crime rates are the highest in the nation. As a result, there have been concurrent efforts to increase accountability and improve police effectiveness. Beginning in 1996, authorities began a dramatic restructuring of the SSC, which included replacing major officials with army officers. Recently, the most recent high-profile effort has been
Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s announcement in 2002 that the city would contract former
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a consultant to the SSC. The SSC also regulates the huge
private security industry in the city and operates the
Animal Control Unit (Brigada de Vigiliancia Animal).
Organization Mexico City has a large uniformed "preventive police" force of approximately 34,000 officers, not to mention 40,000 auxiliary police and 15,000 banking police. These nearly 90,000 officers work for the Secretariat of Citizen Security of Mexico City (Secretaría de Seguridad Ciudadana – SSC CDMX). In 2011, the SSP had a budget of about $106 billion pesos (an increase from the previous year's $89 billion pesos). They are organized into seven major divisions. The remaining five divisions of the Preventive Police, containing over 17,000 officers, are organized as follows: • The Metropolitan Police (Policía Metropolitana) which consists of five district-wide units: •
Public Transit Police (Policía de Tránsito): a traffic police force responsible for overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways. It is headed by the Director of Traffic. •
Tourist Police (Policía Turística): The Tourist Police gives information on laws, customs and cultural attractions in the local community as well as tourist attractions. Officers of the Tourist Police wear a distinctive green uniform and speak English as well as some other European languages. They can be called upon for all kinds of situations, such as road traffic accidents, theft, disputes with hotels or shop keepers where a foreign tourist is involved. They will also act as arbitrators in disputes, and are supposed to do so in an unbiased fashion. •
Mounted Police (Agrupamiento A Caballo) - provides security and protection in parks, gardens and green areas. Also guard the Eastern Prison, and when sporting, social and artistic monitor forums where they performed. They also assist in the conduct and monitoring of mass events, such as: marches, demonstrations,
sit-ins and rallies. Also, there is security guard in the colonias and housing units increased crime rate. Mounted police are also responsible for directing the operation of horse detachments of the Ministry of Public Security to support dismounted elements and mobile groups, subject to established devices. • Feminine Police (Policía Femenil): The Feminine Police work in schools, with juveniles, at public events and in public parks and gardens. • Environmental Police (Policia Ambiental):283 men patrol on foot and by horse the nine delegations from the south and west of the City of Mexico, where the ecological reserve is located. • Medical Urgencies and Rescue Squad (Escuadron de Rescate y Urgencias Medicas or
ERUM). • Special Forces (Fuerzas Especiales) consisting of four main groups: •
Condor Group (Agrupamiento Cóndores formerly called the Escuadron Helicopteros). Equipped with seven
Eurocopter AS 350 Ecureuil, one
Bell 412, and two
Bell 206. • Special Unit (Buczo Especial): A specialized unit responsible for combined duties involving traffic enforcement, crowd control, and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) services within the city. One unique feature of the unit is that it relies on the use of motorcycles in their daily patrols allowing the unit to perform routine traffic enforcement, accompany parades, crowds, and visiting dignitaries, and to quickly travel to situations wherein the unit's SWAT skills are requested. Specialized trucks and support vehicles are also used to transport equipment and officers when needed. • Acrobatic Group (Escuadron Acrobatico) The Task Force deals with terrorist, bomb threats, Search and rescue lost or trapped persons. • Alfa Group (Agrupamiento Alfa): A secretive,
ad hoc force that works with the Special Unit and fights drug trafficking. •
Grenadiers (Agrupamiento de Granaderos/Cuerpo de Granaderos (Oriente y Poniente)): The 2,000 Grenadiers protect the
historic areas of the federal district. They provide Crowd Control, Sector Support to banks, prisons, treasuries, payment offices, government offices, patrolling teams, launch and eviction proceedings, police sporting events, and participate in cultural and religious events with the
Police Band and escort dignitaries and VIPs and haul down the flag. In matters of religious worship is involved with security and surveillance mainly 12 Dec at the
Basilica of Guadalupe,
Easter, and the
Day of the Dead. •
Roadway Security (Seguridad Vial): The Roadway Security maintains a force of 2,600 yellow-uniformed police that patrol the roads and highways. •
Internal Affairs: Investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force. Internal affairs can also refer to cases of misconduct and criminal behavior involving police officers.
Complementary Police There are two Complementary Police (policías complementarias) which operates under the supervision of the SSP, yet is not considered to be a part of the Preventive Police. The Complementary Police contains two
Security Police forces: 32362.63.263 •
Auxiliary Police (Policía Auxiliar): A security police force of approximately 40,000
security police officers that guards official buildings and other specific locations like the airport. On 20 May 2005, published in the Official Gazette of the Federal District's Internal Regulations of the Ministry of Public Security of the Federal District, which states that provide Supplemental Police protective services, custody and security of people and property values and property to, entities and bodies of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the Federal District and Federal, federal and local self-government bodies as well as individuals and corporations, on payment of the consideration to be determined. The Auxiliary Police includes the following: • Citizen Protection Units (Unidades de Protección Ciudadana (UPC's)) 37 UPC's with a total of 14,800 personnel for
public housing projects. • Reaction Force (Grupo Fuerza Reaccion) of 900 officers specializing in crowd control. • Bank Police (Policía Bancaria e Industrial (aka Bancarios)): A 15,000
security police officers strong force who provides security services, surveillance and specialized protection to public and private corporations based in the Mexico City metropolitan area, such as Service Providers, Banks, Industry, Trade, and Institutions Unit. It also provides services and personal security guard and transport custody of securities, commodities and products, etc.
Private Security Directorate The Directorate General of Private Security and Systematic Operating Procedures (la dirección general de seguridad privada y procedimientos sistemáticos de operación), regulates the activities and the provision of
private security services in Mexico City, to ensure that such operations take place under the best conditions of efficiency, reliability, professionalism and legal and financial support for the benefit of the population.
Secretaries of Public Security Government of
Ramón Aguirre Velázquez (1982-1988) • (1988): Enrique Jackson Government of
Manuel Camacho Solis (1988 - 1993) • (1988 - 1991): Javier García Paniagua • (1991 - 1993): Santiago Tapia Aceves Government of
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano (1997 - 1999) • (1997 - 1998): Rodolfo Debernandi Debernandi • (1998 - 1999):
Alejandro Gertz Manero Government of
Rosario Robles (1999 - 2000) • (1999 - 2000):
Alejandro Gertz Manero Government of
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2000 - 2005) • (2000 - 2002):
Leonel Godoy Rangel • (2002 - 2004):
Marcelo Ebrard • (2004 - 2005): Joel Ortega Government
Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez (2005 - 2006) • (2005 - 2006): Joel Ortega Government
Marcelo Ebrard (2006 - 2012) • (2006 - 2008): Joel Ortega • (2008 - 2012): Manuel Mondragón y Kalb • (2012): Luis Rosales Gamboa (as Charge Dispatch (Encargado de Despacho)) Government of
Miguel Angel Mancera (2012 - 2018) • (2012 - 2014): Jesús Rodríguez Almeida • (2014): Luis Rosales Gamboa (as Acting Head) • (2014 - 2018): Hiram Almeida Estrada Gobierno de
José Ramón Amieva Gálvez (17 April 2018 - 5 December 2018) • (5 July 2018 - 5 December 2018):
Raymundo Collins Gobierno de
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (5 December 2018 - 16 June 2023) • 5 December 2018 - 3 October 2019:
Jesús Orta Martínez • 4 October 2019 - 16 June 2023:
Omar García Harfuch Gobierno de
Martí Batres Guadarrama (Desde el 16 June 2023) • 16 June 2023 - Actualidad:
Omar García Harfuch ==Police corruption and public confidence==