If Mexico is going to solve its crime problem, it needs clean police officers, from the bottom up. Under former president Felipe Calderon, Mexico initiated a plan to give every single officer in the country a “control de confianza,” or vetting test. A good idea on paper, perhaps, but its implementation has been a complicated mess. Among other things, there is a concern that cops who fail and are fired will be recruited by the drug cartels. (Of course some are working for them already). Read the story here.

Photo: A police officer patrols in downtown Zapopan, outside Guadalajara, Mexico. The mayor’s office there recently learned that of the roughly 1,600 police officers who had taken a trustworthiness test, 389 had failed. [RF]