Do we need more weapons or more intelligence?

Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) has always been one of my great study concerns. I believe it is one of the most important problems in the world today, and its advance occurs day by day without us seeming able to prevent it. I would dare to say that TOC and disinformation are the two great problems of the current world.

Something that seems undeniable is that if criminal activities grow, it can only be for two reasons: either because sufficient means are not employed in the fight against criminal groups, or because the appropriate methods are not the most suitable. I believe the problem lies in both issues, although I would like to focus only on the second, the methods used.

If we observe what is happening in the south of our country, where drug trafficking activity grows unchecked, and we observe the requests in this regard, we can confirm that all of them refer to the use of war weapons and the possibility of opening fire against the engines of the boats, in the version of the more moderate, and against the occupants, in the version of the less moderate. I believe that, with the utmost respect for the colleagues fallen in this fight, we are on the wrong path; force should not become the priority element of confrontation. We can have long guns and use them, but that does not guarantee that they will also have them and use them. And where should this situation stop?

What seems undeniable is that, worldwide, especially in those places where the activity of criminal groups is growing, a kind of militarization of police forces is occurring, although there are many examples that show us that this is not the solution, that this is not the right path. Let's take Mexico as an example, where the police are armed to the teeth and so are the criminals, but it is the State that is losing in the confrontation, and what is even worse, it not only loses the battle against organized crime but also loses control of part of its territory. While its president engages in absolutely absurd debates, her inability to control criminals is manifest.

An old idea seems to be advancing: that force is defeated with more force. If we observe the police equipment, uniformity, their tactics and procedures, we find ourselves before an image more similar to an Army operations group than to a police unit, a unit prepared for war and not for police activity, pseudo-soldiers willing to fight to win a battle and neutralize their enemies and not to fight for law and order to prevail. The objective of a unit armed to the teeth is to use the firepower they have, and the scenario of our streets is not the scenario of a battlefield. I am sure that the use of such force will bring us more problems than benefits and will lead us to confuse the objectives of one and the other.

Why do we try to use old solutions for new problems? If what we are looking for is the advantage of greater firepower in direct confrontation, we will have failed and our disappointments and bitterness will increase. Our strength, our value, is directly related to the use of the most powerful weapon, our brain, with the incorporation of intelligence and counterintelligence into police activity and thus being able to exercise anticipation and cut their steps before direct confrontation arrives, which can always bring us unpredictable results.

Both state security and private security are influenced by military tactics, suitable for the battlefield, but not for the streets of our cities. A military convoy and its protection system, which travels through terrain over which it has no control and is exposed to numerous risks and attack vectors, always operates reactively; the lack of control always generates a scenario in which firepower is an essential part of the response to a hostile action.

We could recall here the death of our CNI colleagues in Latifiya (Iraq), on November 29, 2003, where an attack with long-range weapons and only the possibility of responding with short-range weapons from our team resulted in the death of seven of the eight colleagues traveling on that road. There, firepower would have been essential to contain the ambush and gain time for reinforcements to arrive. What happens is that if my colleagues had that firepower that they didn't have, they would have shot to kill, without asking permission, without any problem, because that was a military operation.

It is necessary to introduce intelligence and counterintelligence activities in police units, in their way of acting, it is necessary to generate anticipation, prevent to avoid regretting, use the brain and not the pistol or the rifle. If we do not change our concepts, if we do not modify our methodology of action, if we do not prove to be smarter than them, I have no doubt that we will lose more colleagues and shed more tears, even if they are armed to the teeth.

We have to force the authorities to provide the FCSE with intelligence and counterintelligence units, with the sole objective of protecting their colleagues with magazines full of information, that nullify criminal activities without the need to fire shots and that corner force as a last resort. What is needed to reverse the current situation? Well, a lot of street, many sources, many agents specialized in obtaining information on the ground, where it hurts criminals the most, in their own neighborhood. And for that, very special professionals are needed who have been cornered in offices, who have not been allowed to work because sources are a mess.

The current situation shows that the methods are not adequate and that when it comes to obtaining information, humint activity is indispensable, the street, that scenario that we have allowed to be snatched away and now we pay the consequences. They don't defeat us because they have more weapons than us, they defeat us because they have more sources and more information.

As a conclusion to this article, and although I know it will bring me much criticism, but I would be lying if I said otherwise, we have improved the appearance, uniformity, armament, and posture of our police officers and guards, but, little by little, the essence of what it means to be a member of the FCSE is being lost. Our guards and police officers want jobs with working hours, 8 hours a day, with holidays and compensatory days, while criminals spend 24 hours a day on their work, giving them a 16-hour advantage every day.