Copy-proof uniforms planned to battle fake officers in 'cloned' cars

01/30/2003

By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – For city residents and visitors alike, it was bad enough getting shaken down by real cops for transgressions real and imaginary.

Now, fake police officers driving realistic-looking "cloned" patrol cars have city officials so concerned that they are planning to issue copy-proof uniforms and crack
down on pirated cruisers.

Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard said the new uniforms would be made out of a material unavailable to the public so that they could not be copied. They might also include
embedded computer chips that would link each uniform to its rightful owner.

"The elaboration of these uniforms is technically feasible and will resolve any problem," Mr. Ebrard said Tuesday.

The uniforms for some 30,000 police would be available before the end of the year – once the exact specifications have been developed, he said.

Currently, police uniforms can legally be bought at specialized stores and even on the streets of Mexico City. Cash-strapped police officers, who make a few hundred
dollars a month, often substitute regular pants and shoes for official-issue items anyway.

The crackdown against phony police comes as former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani prepares a report this May for the Mexico City government on how to reduce
crime. Mr. Giuliani visited the Mexican capital two weeks ago under tight security.

Top Mexican businessmen worried about crime are paying the $4.3 million fee charged by Mr. Giuliani's consulting firm.

One of Mr. Giuliani's recommendations is to unify Mexico City's many police forces, which include traffic police, regular police, bank police, judicial police and federal
police bodies controlled by the attorney general's office and the Public Security Ministry.

On Tuesday, Mr. Ebrard said police officials had identified two areas of the city where groups of phony police operate.

"We will get them," he said.

The announcement came after Monday's arrest of three men in two cloned patrol cars that were altered to look like vehicles issued by the Mexico City Judicial Police.
The fake cops allegedly had robbed a tractor-trailer carrying electrical cable and other items.

The white cruisers, one a Chevrolet Malibu and the other a Pontiac Sunfire, bore official-looking emblems, lights and sirens but lacked small details that only police
officers could easily distinguish. For example, the license plates did not have raised red numbers but rather numbers painted on a flat background.

Mexico City police officers who became suspicious of the cloned cars and chased them through the streets of the capital said they suspected that the phony cops were
being protected by real ones in the suburban State of Mexico.

Many capital residents remain skeptical of the city government's anti-crime program, including the plans for copy-proof uniforms.

"This won't make any difference, because people can clone anything here," said Judith Benítez, 33, a secretary. "It's crazy to think that new uniforms will somehow help
reduce crime."

While the men arrested on Monday in the phony patrol cars were dressed as civilians, there have been recent incidents involving phony uniformed police.

Last June, seven men wearing fake police uniforms were arrested for robbing tractor-trailers on the outskirts of Mexico City. The men said they had been carrying out
similar robberies of trucks for more than a year, according to the Mexico City newspaper Reforma.

And last July, a fake patrol car was discovered in Mexico City, said city Attorney General Bernardo Bátiz.

According to an article Wednesday in Reforma, turning a plain white vehicle into a phony patrol car costs about $700. Some residents say the crackdown won't stop the
real police from robbing the public. Nearly every drug-trafficking ring, kidnapping clan and auto-robbery gang caught by police has some current and former officers
involved in protecting the bad guys.

Meanwhile, traffic officers prefer bribes, or a "bite," to writing tickets.

"It's easy to put on new uniforms," said Jorge Vivas Fernández, 31. "The difficult part is ending the corruption. That's where they are trying to fool us, but the truth will
always come out."