Playa Del Carmen To Institute New Policing Policies

The municipality of Playa del Carmen is instituting new policing strategies in an effort to bring a “return to peace,” the local police commander said this week. 

“The mandate of the [newly elected] municipal president Laura Beristain is clear, which is to return peace to the people of Solidaridad,” said Commander Martín Estrada Sánchez from Public Safety and Transit. 

Estrada Sánchez said measures include implementing police bases at strategic points that have experienced an increase in crime, so that police response time is reduced. 

In addition the police are working to strengthen ties with citizens using pedestrian and motorized patrols in urban and tourist areas to reduce crimes such as robberies, assaults, homicides, kidnappings and other criminal acts, according to one local report.

“There will be no truce to fight crime. It will be a head-on fight,” Estrada Sánchez told the local media. 

Solidaridad is one of the eleven municipalities that make up the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Playa del Carmen is its municipal seat, and home to much of the area’s resort community and major tourism venues, like Xcaret, the Maya archaeological site. 

In recent months, media reports in the U.S. have raised concerns about tourist safety, though many locals and tourism representatives have seen no safety concerns for Americans visiting the area. 

In April, Quintana Roo launched a smarthphone app that it says provides 24-hour services that will help tourists keep themselves safe.