Accreditation of Mexican Law Enforcement Agencies, Police Communications Centers and Police Academies to International Standards

The purpose of this project is to improve the professionalism of Mexican law enforcement agencies by increasing the number of those agencies that are CALEA accredited.

Project Overview

Funding for this project comes from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) in support of its mission to minimize the impact of international crime and illegal drugs on the United States and its citizens. A priority objective of INL’s Mexico Police Professionalization Program is to build criminal justice systems by institutionalizing the rule of law and strengthening law enforcement effectiveness in Mexico. Helping achieve that objective is the goal of this project through increasing the number of Mexican agencies that are in compliance with CALEA’s international standards. The ultimate goal of the project is to help 80 Mexican law enforcement agencies, public safety training academies and public safety communications centers to achieve and maintain CALEA Accreditation by the end of January 2024.

Methodology

In this unique collaboration with CALEA since late 2015, the NPI has been driving professionalization in Mexico at the agency level where outcomes can be measured against internationally recognized standards. Achieving CALEA accreditation normally takes from two to three years after an agency signs an enrollment agreement with CALEA. In this project, CALEA provides the same accreditation services it provides to every client agency while the NPI provides additional in-person and remote technical assistance to project client agencies by subject matter experts (SMEs). At least one pair of SMEs are assigned to assist each project agency, and their work is supervised by an NPI Regional Manager.

Results

CALEA’s process leading to accreditation normally takes from 2-3 years following enrollment in the program. The first Mexican agency was accepted into the project in August 2016, and as of December 27, 2021, there are a total of 80 project agencies. Through assistance from the project, 47 of those agencies have already achieved accreditation, including 23 public safety training academies, 14 public safety communications centers, and 10 law enforcement agencies. The other project agencies are at different stages in the accreditation process, from a lengthy self-assessment period through the final independent on-line and site-based assessments by CALEA personnel to ensure that the agency is in compliance with all applicable standards.