Police and Excessive Use of Force in Mexico City

In Mexico City, excessive use of force by police officers from different police forces is a problem acknowledged by the public and some political actors.  This concern resulted in the enactment of a 2008 law governing the use of force by police forces of the Federal District. However, there is little research and systematic information about situations in which police abuse is concentrated. In developing democratic societies civilian control agencies has been one of the most important efforts to constraints police abuse and achieve a better level of compliance of basic rights. The main mechanism is the assessment of complaints against illegal police behavior. In Mexico City this responsibility lies with the Federal District Human Rights Commission. Since its founding in 1993 around a fifth of all registered complaints involve policemen (either from the Secretary of Public Security or the Attorney General of the Federal District). Based on the analysis of 600 complaints regarding police abuse between 2007-2011, this study describes the main characteristics of abuse in the use of force, and accounts for its severity by looking at social, spatial, situational, and individual factors. Police abuse is concentrated in a limited set of situations linked to the specific functions of each corporation, the motives and interests of police officers, as well as in spatial patterns.