Signed

As his first official act of 2009, Felipe Calderón signed the Law of the Security System, which will hopefully effect a long-term improvement in the coordination of and communication among Mexico's security agencies. The law is less important than the integrity and competence of the people implementing it, but it's well intentioned, comprehensive, and, provided that Mexico continues to reduce official corruption, it could increase the public's faith in the government. I wrote critically about the hurried effort to reform Mexico's security apparatus in December, but I probably should have done more to distinguish the media's approach (which was more focused on completing the reform quickly than on determining the proper steps to take) to the debate from the policy-makers'.