Catawba – Rhododendron catawbiense

Law enforcement in Mexico is divided into three powers; federal, state and municipal groups. With the reform of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico’s Federal Police, the agency was replaced with the new National Guard that serves as a federal ‘military police.’ The main goal of the National Guard is to bring justice and peace to the country.

In Mexico, government organizations are called “ministries.” Regarding law enforcement and national defense, the federal government has the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection and Ministry of Armed Navy of Mexico. The Mexican Army and Air Force are all within the Ministry of National Defense, commonly known as ‘SEDENA’ in Mexico. The National Guard, Federal Protection and National Center of Intelligence—are administrated by the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection.

State and municipal law enforcement is divided into groups/teams/units in the Ministry of Public Security. State and municipal law enforcement posess transit, special operations and proximity police divisions. This information is generalized and it can vary depending on each ministry structure.

With the current drug war in Mexico, the government has struggled with maintaining public safety in Mexico. Mexico’s efforts in militarization in states and municipalities have resulted positively in citizens’ security, however, homicides, robberies and other criminal activities are still ongoing due to various factors such as corruption, ineffective strategies, or simply lack of police presence, etc.

Law enforcement in some states and municipalities lack of resources and training. In some states or/and municipalities, there’s lack of police forces so federal authorities such as National Guard have to do law enforcement work as a substitute. Checkpoints in Mexico are very common, especially with military. Government efforts are still ongoing and in some areas, police forces are obtaining tactical trucks for patrol and combat. Officers with tactical gear is also very common due to high levels of crime.

Police in states and municipalities is usually underpaid and in some cases, briberies are often seen with Mexican police officers. This is generalized and it doesn’t mean that it happens with all regions.

The Mexican Army and Navy often do patrols along with the National Guard. This doesn’t mean that there’s terrorist activity or cartels nearby. This strategy is to eradicate the threat of organized crime in Mexico.

Mexico’s relations regarding law enforcement with United States include protection in borders and Americans. Additionally, the eradication of cartels and illegal activity happening in USA such as the contraband of drugs and the deaths of teenage and adults because of fentanyl.

The President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the both Secretaries of Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection have shown positive results regarding national defense and public security in the last years. Concerns have come to the attention of Americans and Mexicans, regarding the new strategy of the Mexico’s federal government of militarization in states and Navy and Army doing police operations. Studies says that citizens trust military and National Guard rather than state/municipal police in Mexico. This problem is currently being dealt by the three powers of governments.

Investigations in Mexico is crucial, the federal government has Criminal Investigations Agency, and the Federal Ministerial Police. They are investigating branches in the executive power. This law enforcement ‘detectives’ are commonly called “ministerial officers” in Mexico. They respond to homicides and cartel activity. Unfortunately, in some cases—investigations in Mexico take a long period of time and some of them are being left behind.

Traffic law enforcement is also a major issue to municipal governments. Traffic laws are rarely enforced due to lack of traffic officers. However, it’s still something that’s currently being dealt by government officials.

Mexico maintains two primary federal law enforcement agencies: the National Guard, the uniformed paramilitary force; and the Policía Federal Ministerial, a civilian investigative force. Federal law enforcement officers in Mexico are sometimes referred to, especially by Americans and in media, by the slang term "Federales".

The Ministerial Federal Police (Policía Federal Ministerial, PFM) is the premier investigative arm of the Attorney General of Mexico (FGR).

The PFM replaced the earlier Federal Investigations Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) after much of its force was transferred to the new Federal Police (PF).^[1][2] The Federal Investigations Agency itself had replaced the notoriously corrupt Federal Judicial Police (Policía Judicial Federal, PJF) by the presidential decree of former President Vicente Fox on November 1, 2001. In May 2008, the previous acting chief of the AFI, Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, was assassinated.

The Federal Police (Policía Federal, PF) was the most prominent police force in Mexico. It was under the guidance of the Secretariat of the Interior (SEGOB), the PF was nominally a "preventive" police force with significant powers of investigation to prevent crime.

The PF replaced the Federal Preventive Police, which was created in 1999 combining several police forces into one, but lacking any investigative powers. When the PF was created a large number of investigators from the Federal Investigations Agency (AFI) were transferred and the AFI was replaced by the Ministerial Federal Police. In 2019, the PF was merged into part of the now reactivated National Guard.

The Secretariat of Public Security of Mexico City (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública de la Ciudad de México – SSP), unlike the previous two, does not have national reach, but it does manage a combined force of over 90,000 ^{[citation needed]} officers stationed all over Mexico City. The SSP is charged with maintaining public order and safety all over Mexico City.

The investigative Judicial Police of Mexico City (Policía Judicial del ciudad de México – PJCM), are organized under the Office of the Attorney General of Mexico City (Procuraduría General de Justicia de la ciudad de México). The PGJDF maintains 16 precincts (delegaciones) with an estimated 3,500 judicial police, 1,100 investigating agents for prosecuting attorneys (agentes del ministerio público), and 941 experts or specialists (peritos).^{[citation needed]}

The principal police force of Mexico City is the Protection and Transit Directorate, also known as the Traffic Police, which consists of some 32,000 officers^{[citation needed]} organized into thirty-three precincts. It is the largest single law enforcement organization in Mexico.

The Bank and Industrial Police of the Ministry of Public Security of Mexico City provides specialized services for the protection, custody and supervision, not just banks and lending institutions, but also dependencies and pawnshops, among others.

The Secretariat of Government (Secretaría de Gobernación) has immigration officers who, directed by the Mexican Immigration Service, have the right to detain suspected undocumented aliens and, under certain conditions, may deport them without formal deportation proceedings.

The Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Crédito) Customs officers are deployed at borders and at international airports to interdict contraband entering Mexico.

The Bank of Mexico (Banco de México) also operates its own security division, which is charged with enforcing banking and monetary laws, including cases of counterfeiting, fraud, and money laundering.

Each of the country's thirty-one states maintains both preventive and judicial police called the State Judicial Police. State police are under the direction of the state's governor. The distinction between crimes investigated by State and Federal Judicial Police is not always clear. Most offenses come under the state authorities. Drug dealing, crimes against the government, and offences involving several jurisdictions are the responsibility of the federal police. The state-level preventive police forces are together perhaps 90,000-strong, and the state-level judicial police perhaps 25,000-strong.

State police (Spanish: Policia Estatal) forces operate from precinct stations, called delegaciones with each delegación having an average of 200 police officers attached to it. The ranking officer is known as a comandante, equivalent to a first captain in the military. Most of the remaining personnel hold the ranks of first sergeant, second sergeant, and corporal.

• Tamaulipas State Police
• Yucatán State Police

Some of the municipalities of Mexico have their own preventive and municipal police forces (Policia Municipal), which are responsible for handling minor civil disturbances and traffic infractions. Of the 2,457 municipalities, 650 have no police forces. However, some of the municipal forces are large and important.

There have historically been multiple government departments with varying levels of responsibility for law enforcement, a situation criticized by experts who suggest that all their functions should be merged into the Public Security Ministry.^[3]

Private security and private police have grown significantly in Mexico into the 21st century, in response to perceived government failures to provide security. Mexico holds third place worldwide in the purchase of security equipment. Between 1998 and 1999, security companies increased some 40 percent. The Mexican government has had serious problems in regulating these companies, most of which are illegitimate since they lack the necessary legal permits. It was estimated in 1999 that about 10,000 private security firms operated in Mexico, yet only 2,000 had some form of official permit.

According to official figures in December 2000, there were 2,984 private security companies registered with 153,885 employees. The inability to regulate or control these forces creates a potential security problem. Since many of these companies are unregulated, some will engage in criminality instead of (or as a means of) protecting their clients, thus exacerbating the problem of insecurity. According to a study by the Mexico City legislative assembly, in 1998 there were more private security guards than police. A substantial number of private security guards were formerly police officers or presently work as security guards while off-duty; these dynamics increase the likelihood of police corruption.

• Mexico City Public Safety