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Structural problems with the Mexican Federal, state and local police apparatus has led the government of Mexican president Felipe Calderon to press ahead with the unique solution of using private security firms to enhance government organized crime fighting operations, according to a published report.

An agreement between the Mexican Federal Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) and Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Privada (CNSP) will add 40,000 people to the fight against crime, including guards, security escorts, investigators and some of the most advanced forensic equipment available.

The decision to go this route addresses several problems with the Mexican law enforcement system: poor education and next to no training, low pay, lack of intelligence standards among the several agencies, and physical limitations of the officers currently employed by the governments in Mexico.

According to statistics reported 18 states have one or more municipalities without any police force at all, starting with the southern state of Oaxaca with 362. These figures reveal that municipalities without police are concentrated in 18 states. Chiapas has nine followed by Veracruz, Jalisco and Yucatän with six each, Guerrero, Puebla and Sonora with four each, Zacatecas and Coahuila with two and finally, Estado de México, Morelos, Michoacän, Nuevo León, Tlaxcala, Quintana Roo, Colima and Chihuahua each have one municipality without police protection.

The SSP also reports of 783,000 municipalities, 410,000 have less than 100 police.

Additionally 62 percent of those police are paid less than $4,000 pesos a month, while 68 percent do not even have a primary education. Also, 42 percent of municipal police are performing tasks for which they are considered too old because they are between 36 and 55 years old.

Obesity is a factor as well. Many of the gummen hired by gangs are between 18 and 24 years old. When street police respond to a shooting call they are less likely to deal properly with the situation than a younger officer. For example, the Mexican Distrito federal police officer has a ratio of 62 percent of officers who were between eight and 25 kilograms overweight. Snacking is an issue with police as well as with the population.

One official quipped: "An offender may escape our officers, but never a taco."

According to one officials seven of ten officers are unable to run longer than 100 meters.