NCJ Number
207813
Journal
Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 28 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2004 Pages: 26-28,30,32
Date Published
October 2004
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Border-area auto theft in southern Arizona has been countered by the creation of a network of cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the northern Mexican State of Sonora.
Abstract
At the center of this network is the Policia Internacional Sonora y Arizona (PISA), a grassroots, cross-border networking group. PISA was created some 20 years ago from a few Arizona and Sonora officers who started meeting for breakfast after having only communicated by phone. Currently, the group has hundreds of members throughout the border region. Each year PISA hosts a week-long conference, held alternately in Arizona and Mexico, to provide training in investigations and professional networking. Relationships developed between Sonora and Arizona officers at the conferences have facilitated communication and cooperation not only in auto-theft cases but also in other law enforcement tasks that involve cross-border issues. One of the cooperative enterprises designed to counter auto theft is the Border Auto Theft Information Center, which was established in 2003 to maintain a toll-free, long-distance telephone line that Sonoran police can use to seek and share information about stolen vehicles recovered in or stolen from Mexico. Discussions are underway to create an online version of the phone link. Another development intended to address the epidemic of auto thefts in Arizona is the Arizona Auto Theft Task Force, which coordinates the activities of 21 municipal, county, and State law enforcement and licensing agencies that operate in Arizona. Task force members work directly with Mexican police. The task force has also conducted joint training with Mexican police to facilitate cooperation in auto-theft investigative techniques and procedures.