EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — The women and men march in formation across a local school yard on weekends, training as citizen volunteers in this city’s fight against crime.
Each wearing a yellow cap and olive green vest over their street clothes, the members of El Alto’s neighborhood security brigades get instructions from the uniformed police officers who train them. When they patrol their communities, the volunteers are armed with nothing more than cellphones to call the closest police station when they spot a suspected crime.
Porfiria Luca, a 29-year-old mother of two and bread vendor, said she joined the brigade because she’s worried about crime in her neighborhood. She said a young woman who lived in the area was recently killed, her body found dumped a week ago.
Police Sgt. Freddy Quispe said there are more than 2,000 brigade members in El Alto. The city of about 800,000 people includes many impoverished people from rural areas who migrated there to be closer to the nearby capital of La Paz and improve their economic situation.
Col. Feliz Rocha, who oversees the neighborhood brigade in El Alto, recognized that the city doesn’t have the police or law enforcement equipment it needs for the crime-plagued city. There are only 300 community police officers to patrol the area.
“But we have to go out and fight against crime,” he said. “In this case, we look for help from neighbors.”
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