The Challenges Facing Minister Arrau in Public Security

The role of the Minister of Security is to be responsible for the system, the main communicator, and the coordinator with other ministries and branches of government.

The main challenge of public security in Chile is to operate the Public Security System, which must be managed with a strategy that currently does not exist as such. This involves having clear objectives, understanding the available or necessary resources to shape it, and what is known as the strategy , that is, how human, material, and technological resources are utilized to achieve the established objectives. Without objectives, there is no strategy, only plans.

It is not the purpose of this column to dictate to the Minister Martín Arrau and his team, but if it helps in any way, fantastic. I know that as a good industrial civil engineer, he will understand the need for the system and the strategy. This goes beyond the existing public security policy and the list of actions published by former Minister Steinert, all of which are good, but far from what is understood as a strategy.

Chile currently has a Ministry of Public Security, with two undersecretariats, one for Crime Prevention and another for Public Security. Its main resources are the police forces that depend on this government ministry, resources over which it does not have total control, as they are shared with the Public Ministry and others that may require police participation by law in matters not under the Ministry of Security. (For more details on the law that creates the Ministry of Public Security, see here).

The ministry was created to enhance and focus the work of the State of Chile in public security to achieve better results than when it was under the Ministry of the Interior. Personally, I was among those who believed that this change was unnecessary, but since it exists, it must be made to work. Having a ministry dedicated to the issue that most concerns Chileans requires it to operate efficiently, but more importantly, it must be effective.

It is said that we all agree on the diagnosis of the public security situation, which may be true, but only partially. Those who do not rely on data and only believe the media see a very unhappy situation. If we use STOP data, the RM is 15% better than a year ago, something I have not seen the media highlight, focusing only on murders and kidnappings while omitting the reality based on data. They say that data kills narrative, which is correct, but the narrative is killing the data due to absence or lack of opportunity. This happens because authorities do not follow the recipe of Patricia Bullrich, communicating daily the progress alongside what needs to be improved. In just one week in charge, it is evident that Minister Arrau understands very well the importance of communication. The results of the system, whether good or bad, must be transparent and known.

We have four major problems to address in public security: 1) The permeability of the borders with Peru and Bolivia; 2) The existence of insurgent movements and criminal activity in the Southern Macrozone; 3) Transnational organized crime in the form of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnappings, smuggling, illegal exploitation of copper, timber, and fish, collection of rents from merchants and petty criminals for operating in certain territories, among other things; and 4) The one that concerns me the most, to the mayors, and a large part of the Chileans, the common and ordinary crime that involves assaults, carjackings, home invasions, cellphone thefts, burglaries, scams, and other illicit activities, all of which affect the vast majority of those of us living in Chile, especially women and the elderly, who show the highest levels of insecurity in the annual ENUSC survey.

Having clarified the problems to be solved, we must agree on what we want in terms of objectives. Is the best 15% of the RM the result of a specific strategy? I doubt it, but it may relate to actions taken by this government and the previous one, which, although generic, produce results. For example, Las Condes, which does have a strategy, is performing 23% better compared to the 15% of the RM.

Without clarity in objectives, we will not know how many police officers we need, nor their distribution by geography or how they should be organized to fulfill their constitutional mandate to guarantee order and security throughout the national territory. Having a clear understanding of the number of available police officers and detectives is mandatory; they are the main resources that will be used to achieve the objectives. Having police officers guarding the palace, integrating the institutional band, or performing administrative tasks is nonsensical and a misuse of public resources.

If we set very ambitious objectives, we may realize that the resources allocated to public security are insufficient or that we will need to invest to develop or acquire them. A strategic exercise conducted by the public security system is iterative until reaching the ideal combination of objectives and resources given a specific strategy. This is why it is important to ensure that the system functions well, effectively, and efficiently.

The system is extremely complex, one for which the minister will need a staff or a planning directorate that should aim to design and evaluate the system, the strategy, and the determination of objectives and resources. Day-to-day operations must be organized in a line structure. I am not clear that the CICPOL (Integrated Police Coordination Center) is the unit, but something of that nature should be. In military jargon, there is talk of separating ‘Current Operations’ – the unit that operates and is involved in contingencies, from ‘Future Operations’ – the thinking unit.

The role of the Minister of Security is to be responsible for the system, the main communicator, and the coordinator with other ministries and branches of government. We have already seen that he does not even have total control over the police. He must also coordinate with Congress, the Public Ministry, the judicial system, the Armed Forces, the UAF, Customs, and the SII of Finance, the ANI and immigration from the Interior, Gendarmería, which is still under Justice but will soon be transferred, the SML which will remain in Justice, Seremías, Presidential Delegations, governors, mayors, and many others. We are talking about a job where political skills and strategic leadership are key, where the ability to communicate simply and clearly is a necessary condition, and one where he must manage the system as a commander of an aircraft, a military combat unit, or a warship.

It is difficult to understand why someone would accept to be Minister of Public Security, a role where they are lucky to have command over the people working in the ministry and everyone expects immediate results. I leave that question for you to ask Minister Arrau. I suppose the same applies to Minister Quiroz, who, not being the head of Congress or the Central Bank, must ensure that the economy picks up pace and that we have a fiscal expenditure and a state size that we can finance.

Vice Admiral Soto (r) is a good example that with leadership and knowledge, things can be achieved . He is not in charge of anyone, but many or all listen to him because they know he knows. They know he is the presidential delegate and that behind him is the President of the Republic himself, something that also applies toEngineer Arrau, a minister of the President’s full confidence, who understands a lot about systems and strategy, who knows about politics and coordination, and about strategic leadership. Hardworking and diligent. All the already known or announced measures help, but if we do not have strategies for the four problems that public security must address, we will be in a permanent state of emergency.

For now, let us start by connecting and making compatible all the databases and systems of the police, the Public Ministry, the municipalities, and all those participating in the public security system. Just with that, we will have a significant advance and a huge gain in productivity.

Those of us working on public security issues will be very grateful.