Dennie Quill, Contributor

THE MOST jaw-dropping piece of news I read this week came via the Associated Press, which reported that police in the crime-plagued Mexican city of Tijuana had their guns confiscated and were issued with slingshots following allegations of collusion with drug gangs.

Ballistic tests are being carried out on the guns seized early January, to determine if they were used to commit crimes, specifically murder. And despite street protests from some members of the force and their families, the order stands. So now the roughly 2,000 policemen and women have been given slingshots and ball bearings as they patrol areas visited by tourists.

This offensive by President Felipe Calderon, who came to power last year on a platform of law and order, is in keeping with his stated objective of cracking down on organised crime in his country. Violence in the Tijuana city of 1.4 million has grown increasingly brutal with 300 murders recorded in 2006 - 13 of them being police officers. In one of the most gruesome crimes, three policemen were kidnapped and killed and their severed heads dumped on a beach.

And the president has done more than pay lip service to a strategic plan to lessen lawlessness and brutality in Mexico. The government has pumped enormous resources into these operations. For example, the foray into Tijuana of 3,000 troops on the ground was backed by 28 boats, 21 planes and nine helicopters. This hunt for drug gangs and criminals included incursions by land, air and sea. State officials in Tijuana reported a 14 per cent drop in crime in the first ten days of the operation.

Then last month President Calderon sent 7,000 troops into his native state of Michoacan, which had been plagued by execution-style killings as rival gangs fight over marijuana plantations and smuggling routes.

I cite these examples of Mexico's massive anti-crime efforts to illustrate what can be done when a government understands that its citizens are deeply affected by crime and violence. Drastic measures demand drastic responses.

Boycott for results

I must add that the Calderon government had faced the ire of influential groups like the Tijuana Business Coordinating Council, which instituted a three-month boycott of government functions. The group had been demanding more federal resources to fight crime and pressed for greater coordination among federal, state and municipal law enforcement agencies. Now they have ended the boycott because they see that this initiative will bear fruit.

If ever a country needed to have urgent strategies to deal with crime and violence, this is it. Our dubious fame as the world's murder capital continues to be affirmed with the brutal start to 2007. The corruption in our police force has to be one of the biggest deterrents to a successful anti-crime campaign. And while I am not suggesting that the Minister of National Security disarm the police force, it would be interesting if the weapons handed to members of the force were tested from time to time. It would be equally interesting if police officers were made accountable for the weapons and ammunition they are issued with.

Changing the laws

Police officers who leak confi-dential information to criminals should be punished. But I remember talking to a former commissioner of police, who was lamenting the complex business of dismissing a member of the force. If the laws are so skewed towards the rogue elements among us, they should be changed.

For Mexican citizens, it must be rather comforting to hear a member of Calderon's government declare that they would carry out all the necessary actions to retake every region of national territory and would not allow any state to be a hostage of drug traffickers or organised crime.

While we continue to search for ideas, maybe we could use Mexico as a case study, just maybe there are some lessons to be learnt here.

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