Jalisco falsified crime statistics over the past three years

At least during the last three years, the data that the State Prosecutor’s Office reported to the National Public Security System were false or “made up,” said Governor Enrique Alfaro.

The foregoing was detected when an audit was made between the statistics that the previous state administration sent to the National System, and the investigation folders registered by the Office of the Prosecutor between June 2016 and November 2018. The audit was done by the Council State Public Security of Jalisco and its Executive Commission.

According to the crime figures presented, between June and December 2016, only 68% of the crimes actually investigated in Jalisco were reported to the national system; in 2017, seven out of every 10, and from January to November 2018, 27 out of every 100 illicit acts that reached the ears of the state authority were hidden.

In the case of crimes such as vehicle theft, business robbery and robbery of persons that occurred in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Guadalajara (AMG), the Office of the Prosecutor reported less than half in the three years of analysis, according to the new measurements.

The governor stressed that this announcement “will not remain there”, because the State Council will keep the investigations open until they find the officials involved in the omission. He added that a complaint will also be filed for criminal sanctions, since it is a federal crime.

Eduardo Almaguer, who headed the General Prosecutor’s Office between July 2015 and November 2017, denied that during his administration they “made up” figures. In a radio interview, he maintained that the shared information “was always within the framework of the standard or the technical requirements” demanded by the federal authority. He also said he was willing to collaborate if, eventually, an investigation is opened and he is summoned.

Enrique Alfaro announced that information on security will have public access through four new platforms, three of which are in the process of being created. The data, he added, may be verifiable by any public body, and may even be investigated by the State Anticorruption System.

The expert in national security, Alejandro Hope, added that it is “simple” that the criminal indicators presented to the National Public Security System are not the real ones.

After venturing that the official figures of the State Government in terms of security were “made up” the last three years, Governor Enrique Alfaro asked the Secretary of National Public Security, Alfonso Durazo, to perform an audit in all states, in order to ensure that their respective prosecutors and prosecutors sent real data and did not “make up” their figures as, he says, occurred in Jalisco.

The state governor indicated that during his administration the figures presented will be the real ones, since no information will be hidden with the purpose of changing the image of insecurity that exists in the Entity, for which there is a risk that Jalisco will be located in the first national places in the commission of crimes, especially if, as he thinks, the other entities do not report their true data.

“The decision is: no more lies. If other governors want to lie, there they are, but what we are going to ask the National Security System is to audit them, to really review what is happening. I prefer that people know where we start from so we can evaluate where we are going to take the State. At the end of my Government this reality in which we are today is not going to be the reality, that is my commitment,” he said.

Article 139 of the General Law of the National Public Security System establishes penalties of eight years in prison to anyone who “maliciously enters the databases of the National Public Security System, without having the right to do so or, having it, knowingly enter information wrong “.