Police From Both Sides Focus on Border Cooperation

International cooperation, long a suspect notion along the U.S.-Mexico border, was the sudden battle cry of law enforcement authorities from the two nations Thursday.

The U.S. Border Patrol talked about working with Mexican officials to curb violence by border bandits. American police went out of their way to offer assistance to their Mexican counterparts. And officials from both sides said ongoing efforts to reduce crimes--from vehicle theft to drug trafficking to murder--all pointed out the need for greater cooperation.

“Mutual cooperation is probably the bottom line. It’s of the utmost importance,” said Cmdr. Jim Kennedy of the San Diego Police Department.

“The border only divides us as nations, but we share the same kinds of problems,” added Capt. Jesus Montanez Roman of the Tijuana police.

The event prompting the conciliatory comments was the eighth annual Border Crimes Conference, which is designed to improve communications among diverse police agencies on both sides of the border. The two-day event, including representatives from more than a dozen police contingents in both California and Mexico, began Thursday in San Diego.

That such a conference is even necessary demonstrates the special kinds of problems facing law enforcement authorities working near the 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border. It also underscores the fundamental lack of cooperation that so often frustrates officials in both Mexico and the United States, allowing crime to flourish and criminals to go free.

In response to the problem, police agencies on both sides of the border have appointed liaison officers to work with law enforcement authorities in the other nation, cultivating personal contacts with their foreign counterparts.

“We need them and they need us,” said Ron Collins, longtime liaison for the San Diego Police Department. “Without the contacts, you’re dead.”

Historically, fleeing across the border has provided a safe refuge for criminals seeking to avoid prosecution in their home country. On Thursday, both Mexican and U.S. officials agreed that additional cooperation is needed to apprehend fugitives eluding prosecution. What concrete steps will evolve remain unclear, although both sides pledged to increase their sharing of information.

“We want criminals to know they can run across borders but they can’t hide,” said California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp.

The border has facilitated some specific criminal activities, such as vehicle theft, drug trafficking and other forms of smuggling. Another problem is identifying the bodies of foreign nationals found along the border.

Officials said well-organized rings are stealing hundreds of vehicles from the United States, taking them across the border and selling them in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.

But cooperative arrangements allowed California authorities to recover 1,200 stolen cars from Mexico in 1985, said Ben Killingsworth, chief of the California Highway Patrol in San Diego. Killingsworth acknowledged that the number is only a “drop in the bucket” considering the huge volume of stolen American vehicles being driven to Mexico.

In recent times, the border, particularly in the rough canyon areas of southern San Diego County, has become a kind of no-man’s land where vicious bandits prey on undocumented immigrants seeking to enter the United States.

“We must work together to resolve this violence . . . which has troubled us in both the United States and Mexico,” said Jaime Torres Espinoza, chief of the Mexican attorney general’s office in Baja California.

Responding to a suggestion from Alan Eliason, Border Patrol chief in San Diego, the Mexican prosecutor said he would recommend that federal and state judicial police units in Baja California contact U.S. immigration authorities to develop a joint plan for battling border crime. “We’ll never get rid of the problem altogether,” Eliason acknowledged, “but there is much we can do together.”

Another problem not likely to go away soon is the trafficking in illicit drugs. U.S. authorities have cited a hefty rise in cross-border drug trafficking, particularly South American cocaine, which authorities say is increasingly being transported through Mexico into the United States.

“The Mexican government is firm and vigorous in its commitment against narcotics trafficking,” said Ernesto de la Garza Hinojosa, regional coordinator for the Mexican anti-trafficking campaign. “We have worked closely with officials in the United States, with each side respecting the sovereignty of the other nation.”

True to the conciliatory spirit of the conference, most U.S. officials present--with the exception of San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender--were circumspect in their comments about official corruption being a possible impediment to anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Mexico. At a separate news conference, Kolender echoed statements made previously by U.S. officials that pervasive corruption in Mexico is a serious problem in battling drug traffickers.