The Cash That Is Needed

A Senate study says that up to about $8 billion would be needed for Mexico's police to become the effective crime-fighting force a modern nation deserves. The figure doesn't sound that outlandish, but the price tag can be a deceiving way to approach the problem of approving Mexico's police. The missing attribute isn't primarily cash, but a consensus about how to fix the problem (nationalizing the local police versus keeping the present model is just one of the many dilemmas that remains unsettled) and the political will to then go ahead and do so. And that can't be bought. Mexico's political class already has all the reason in the world to put aside their philosophical and electoral differences and chart out a path to better police and a safer nation, but, as the recent political sniping related to Juárez policy has shown, they aren't ready to do that despite increases in violence.