PRAXEDIS G. GUERRERO, Mexico (Oct. 20) -- There's a new police chief in this violent borderland where drug gangs have killed public officials and terrified many citizens into fleeing: a 20-year-old woman who hasn't yet finished her criminology degree.
Marisol Valles Garcia was sworn in Wednesday to bring law and order to a township of about 8,500 that has been transformed from a string of quiet farming communities into a lawless no man's land. Two rival gangs - the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels - have been battling for control of its single highway, a lucrative drug trafficking route along the Texas border.
The tiny but energetic Valles Garcia, whose only police experience was a stint as a department secretary, says she wants her 13 officers to practice a special brand of community policing. She plans to hire more women - she currently has three - and assign each to a neighborhood to talk with families, promote civic values and detect potential crimes before they happen.
Full story: http://www.aolnews.com/world/articl...-police-chief-in-praxedis-g-guerrero/19682929
Marisol Valles Garcia was sworn in Wednesday to bring law and order to a township of about 8,500 that has been transformed from a string of quiet farming communities into a lawless no man's land. Two rival gangs - the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels - have been battling for control of its single highway, a lucrative drug trafficking route along the Texas border.
The tiny but energetic Valles Garcia, whose only police experience was a stint as a department secretary, says she wants her 13 officers to practice a special brand of community policing. She plans to hire more women - she currently has three - and assign each to a neighborhood to talk with families, promote civic values and detect potential crimes before they happen.
Full story: http://www.aolnews.com/world/articl...-police-chief-in-praxedis-g-guerrero/19682929
