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Literature lessons for cops in Mexico

12:08 H | Topics: Culture - Education - Literature - Mexico

Mexico City police officers are infamous for their laissez-faire attitude towards crime (some call it lazi-ness) their corruption (I once got out of being taken in by feeding this corruption myself and giving the officer what he asked for: "dos pesos pa' un chesco") and their overall "lack of culture".

With officers earning about 400 USD per month, it's easy to see why money for a Coke might be more worth their time than taking me down to the station or running after some thief. And with that salary, I probably wouldn't be taking any trips to the symphony or the ballet myself.

The police force of Ciudad Neza -- perhaps Mexico D.F.'s most infamous suburb -- wants to change all that. And the first step that they are taking is to make their officers read and write, through a program called "Literatura Siempre Alerta":

"The principle is that a police officer who is cultured is in a better position to be a better police officer," says José Jorge Amador, Nezahualcoyotl's head of public security.

The experiment began early in 2005 with reading and writing classes. It has since mushroomed into an entire literature course with its own constantly expanding editorial series, called Literature On Alert. All the 1,200 officers of the municipal force are now required to attend fortnightly book groups - while off duty - if they are to have any hope of promotion.

The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper reports that while most police officers in Mexico have at least a high school education, many haven't gone past middle school. And many blame the lack of education and "culture" for the negative image of cops in Neza and the work they do:

...the idea is also to prove to the people that the police are no longer the scheming, corrupt low-life most Mexicans assume them to be. "We have a bad police force because society sees them as in the basement, in the sewer," says Mr Amador, whose immediate predecessor is in a maximum-security jail for drug trafficking. "In Nezahualcoyotl we want to elevate the police so [they are] worthy of fulfilling their obligations."

According to The Guardian, the Neza police force has received congratulatory phone calls from as far away as Scotland Yard. This all sounds fine and dandy, but with the miserable salary the police earn for their dangerous jobs, can we really expect that reading Don Quijote is going to end corruption? I wonder how Neza taxpayers feel about this, when there are parts of their city that don't even have paved roads.

Via / The Guardian and The Latin Americanist

Image via Dryma en colores' Flickr page

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