Police Officer Shortage in Rosarito

The beachside city of Rosarito, famous as tourist destination for decades, is having trouble filling posts in its police department, according to a recent article in Tijuana’s daily Frontera. Of some 223 newly graduated academy-trained police, none have accepted posts in Rosarito, where the force has a 20 percent vacancy in its ranks.

The article quoted Laura Torres, president of a Rosarito business organization (Consejo Coordinador Empresarial): “If they are paying [police officers] 9000 pesos [about $650 a month in Rosarito] instead of 14,000 pesos [about $1050 a month], which is the going rate in Tijuana and Mexicali, well, you are not going to want to go there for less money, and maybe another problem is that those who don’t want to come to Rosarito might not want to because of the danger factor.”

There are currently 40 vacancies for officers in the department, according to Torres, and they have been open for some time. Despite the need for more officers, efforts by the business sector to get help from city hall have proven fruitless.

According to the Frontera article, some ten years ago, Tijuana was paying its officers the equivalent of about $800 a month, but their salary was substantially raised by city hall in an effort to improve the force.

(Stock photo)