Crime meeting tomorrow Oct. 11 in the Chapala municipal bldg 11am

October 10, 2013 - we just received an email with the following information:

A person from the Guadalajara Departamento de Procurador (Attorney General) will be at the Chapala municipal building to conduct a meeting to listen to the lakeside area concerns about crime at11:00 a.m. tomorrow, Friday. It will be held on the Patio de Presidencia, which is just outside the lobby area.

It will be in Spanish, but there should be a few people that can translate. The gentleman from the office of the Presidente who contacted one of our neighbors believes that the more people that show up, the more seriously the Departamento will take the lakeside crime. If you know of people in other developments that might be interested in attending, please share this information.

I have seen the signs for this event. I don't think the publicity the foreigners are giving it jives with what they are expecting. People need to understand what will happen here so as not to be disappointed and not ask questions that aren't relevant.

The publicity for this event states that this meeting will relate to the service and processing of criminal complaints by the prosecutor's office (Ministerio Publico) now called Fiscalia General del Estado.

I don't think the mayor or local government can or has much say in it (this is a state issue and not a municipal one) and this is about the follow through to prosecute crimes when a report is made which the police do not do and the offended party must do. If you are a victim and don't make a report then you really have no right to complain. This isn't about the police who prevent crimes but the action the citizen victim takes afterwards and the level of service at the ministerio publico (Fiscalia General del Estado).

It might be more fruitful if people focused on commenting on making it easier to make reports and the follow up, almost the vast majority of the time reports are made but unless you make 20 visits, you never know if anything is being done on your report as well as the need to follow up with the MP, and then investigative police to do their due diligence and supplemental reports and then everything back to the MP and then their referral to the criminal courts.

If you did not know what I just said and you made a report then you might want to comment on why you weren't informed nor kept in the loop.

In my opinion they need to hear from people that there needs to be a better way to make crime reports while spending less time to encourage more reporting of crimes, also more follow through after the fact (thereby increasing confidence in the system and encouraging more people to report crimes) as well as swiftness and celerity of the punishment to deter criminals or lock them up so they cannot hurt others.