Interior Minister Wilfredo Pedraza said Thursday that the government plans to increase the number of police officers and police stations over the next year in order to better tackle crime in Peru.
Pedraza said the plan is to add another 12,000 police by December 2013 and 260 well-equipped police stations.
While Peru is relatively safer than many other countries in Latin America, the perception of insecurity is high among the population. Opinion polls regularly cite crime and security as one of the main concerns of residents in the Andean nation.
Corruption within the police force only exacerbates the poor perception. Low wages and poor leadership have led to a general distrust among the civilian population. Recently, three policemen were killed by colleagues when they were attempting to kidnap a local businessman in a north Lima district.
“A challenge is to work with the citizenry,” Pedraza said during an interview with RPP radio. “We hope the police will be seen as a trustworthy institution again.”
Pedraza also said that police will seek to improve intelligence work to combat crime. “There have been big delays in police investment in intelligence,” he said.
Peruvan police are well-trained, and initially, well-motivated…..now if they were only PAID what they are worth, rather than leaving them to solicit ‘propinas’ for either letting people go about their normal business, or to ignore infractions….
Well it might help if you had traffice courts, and to have onje stand in front of a cafe or metro, or a bank, is not a policeman bussiness, I have been stoppend or my driver has and ask how much is the gringo paying you, well give it to me or I give you a ticket who do you go to there is no one, they are all crooked