Public Security in Lima – December 12 – 12 - 2010

Normally, when someone is asked about the security situation in Lima, the first
answer will be, almost every time, insecurity is increasing. This answer is
always related with the numbers of citizens and houses that have been
assaulted or robbed.

Lima is a capital city with more than 9 million people living in it and most of
them live in the peripheral surroundings areas.

But the number of crimes only represent the consequences, but the causes
rarely are taken into analysis.

To understand the problem, like in any other capital city, we have to check the
status of the judicial value chain. This judicial process is at the center of the
problem and encompasses city Majors, laws, the police, private security,
prosecution, judges and the prisons administration and rehabilitation system.
So, what happens in the streets, public and private property included, is a
consequence of a weak judicial value chain, along every one of its links.

Besides, if we add the fact that the state does not have a clear and integrated
judicial value chain policy, the result is what we deserved and verify every day.

From a macro point of view, we also notice that the weakness of this process is
not the only one. We have to include a police force short in number, with low
salaries and most of them living in or near the same areas of high criminal
behavior; a low level of school education for a large number of the population;
prosecution and judges with low salaries, with the responsibility of making
decisions, overloaded by the cases and by corruption and a prisons system that
has collapsed several years ago.

And if we check the resources of the first line of defense, the police, like
technical equipment, IT, training, mobility, command centers, timely response,
etc, we can confirm that the situation is worst yet.

Informal civic- economic-commercial behavior is also part of the problem

because it is the result of a way of living that reach public and private
institutions as well. There is a national perception that if you bend a civic law
probably nothing is going to happen and that, itself, is the main characteristic
of the people of Lima.

”Do not be a fool, do not be the only one who does things right”. Is the
rationality that comes from inside families, schools, jobs and friends. Is a
demonstration that the state is absent from our nationality, including
politicians and authorities. Parents set the example and so on.
We need an immediate, coherent and plausible State Public Security Plan for
the identification and prioritization of the main subjects and define several
national/local objectives to be achieved in a short period of time.

We are democrats because it is convenient for us now, but we do not practice

democracy in a daily basis. We are not living in an inclusive city; we are not a
nation yet.