Criminals’ friends

Many years ago, I loved watching the translated Batman and Robin series that was broadcast on the television channels of my native Mexicali. Each chapter was exciting, with the protagonists fighting in each episode against evil.

At that time, many of us then children learned that technology could significantly help in the fight against crime.

I wish some kids today would learn something.

There are a couple of politicians from the Calexico border who could very well use the lessons that that television series left behind.

I omit the names because the intention of this column is not to highlight any person but to point out the argumentation flaws on a topic analyzed by the Calexico City Council.

At the request of Interim Chief of Police Jesús Serrano, the council approved – thanks to the votes of three members – the contracting of a private company in order to place license plate readers at four important city intersections.

According to the document presented by the police chief, the system used by this business differs from those installed in other places, since it uses the captured image and reproduces it in such a way that it fits into the system’s databases of vehicles reported as stolen. In this way, the authorities receive information not only from the vehicle but from the driver himself, which in turn is compared with the database to find out if the driver was involved in a crime.

This system is very useful for Calexico due to the high rates of vehicle theft in the city. Records from the California Department of Justice indicate that the border city reported the second-highest number of stolen vehicles in Imperial Valley, just behind only El Centro. If you mistakenly think that the difference is abysmal between both cities, let me tell you that you are wrong. While in the county’s seat (El Centro) there were 152 cases two years ago, in Calexico there were 151. The border city accumulates 28% of the vehicle thefts registered in the Imperial Valley.

Another of the big problems that this crime represents is the fact that many of the stolen cars end up on the other side of the border, due to the lax verifications carried out by the Mexican Customs authorities. If the owner is lucky and manages to find his unit in Mexicali, he too must face a huge bureaucratic problem that also includes a significant financial cost to recover the vehicle.

Quite possibly the two politicians who voted against the installation of license plate readers in Calexico have never had to suffer from this problem, and that’s good (for them). The truth is, they have no idea how cumbersome and traumatic it is to deal with Mexican authorities – which are not very far from the U.S. in some cases.

Furthermore, these 151 people were suddenly left on foot, ruining their visits to the doctor, their commutes to work, or transporting their children to school. It is also possible that the vehicles lost – thanks to criminals – was an asset that allowed them to earn an income. As almost certainly happened, these families – including quite a few low-income families – lost an important part of a patrimony that they managed to acquire with a lot of work, due to low wages these workers-turned-vehicle-owners earn and that the two opposition members of the Calexico council say they defend.

Seeing the police deal with a lower cost to combat this problem should be an incentive for those who have been affected by vehicular theft, realizing that the authorities seek to avoid this discomfort to other citizens.

The sad thing about the case in the border city is that it seems that the Joker and the Riddler have put on the costumes of the dynamic duo and have entered the Commissioner’s office to help those who, in theory, should fight.