Bogota’s mayor asked National Police chief Oscar Naranjo to increase the number of police in Bogota by 4,000 on Monday.
“I want to take this time to address the government, and General Oscar Naranjo, because the reality is that the number of police in the capital of Colombia is not enough to cover a city of 7 million inhabitants. We have 18,700 agents, and that is certainly not enough, considering that more than 5,000 of them are currently enlisted in the armed services and cannot provide service,” said Bogota’s mayor Clara Lopez Obregon.
This is not the first time the mayor has asked to strengthen police forces in the capital city.
“We have made various estimates, and at an earlier time we had talked about 22,000 policemen significantly improving security. A city like this in the United States has twice the number of troops that Bogota,” said Lopez.
In 2009, when the current mayor Clara López Obregón was secretary of government, she released a study that showed there was a deficit of police officers in Bogota.
“When I was secretary of government we had a total of 20,000 agents, and it surprises me that the government reduced this number now to 18,700. It is important that we continue to insist that the national government and police provide more agents.”
The recently elected mayor intends to use the additional security in the municipalities of Martyrs, Ciudad Bolivar, Kennedy, Usme, and Bosa.