Although police authorities, be it at the local, state, or federal level, are suppose to protect the public, Gonzalez said they are the worst human rights offenders. Of about 5,000 cases she s taken since she became a full-time human rights advocate in 1994, Gonzalez said the city police, and the state judicial police have perpetrated most of the abuses. A common target of the city police is the working man who probably buys a six pack of beer, gets in his car, and then is stopped for whatever reason, beat up, and robbed of his money, she said. The state police often have been accused of kidnapping and extortion. Both the heads of these departments most of the time know about these abuses, but they don t do anything.
Corruption is endemic all the way to the top.
The worst penalty a crooked official gets is the inconvinience of being transferred somewhere else. To makes matters worse, some of these questionable officials make the rounds from place to place only to end up back at their original job site. In Tamaulipas, the governor conceals his subordinates abuses. There is also too much nepotism in many state agencies. Although the news media often reports anonymous tips about corruption within police agencies, Gonzalez is probably one of the few who openly speaks about it.