Female Mexican Police Officers Were Forced to Submit to a ‘Hotness Test’

Via cc (Image credit: Eneas De Troya

In the Mexican city of Querétaro, female police officers were reportedly subjected to “attractiveness” inspections at the hands of their male superiors. Two women, after being singled out and criticized for their weight and appearance, pushed back, filing to the state’s human rights commission an official complaint against the offending commanders, detailing the demeaning process they were forced to endure to secure a spot on the new female unit tasked with patrolling the touristic town center. For greater impact, they also took their story to a nonprofit organization advocating for women.

“The women said, ‘I trained to be a police officer, not a showgirl,” Maricruz Ocampo of Coincidir Mujeres, the NGO with which the female officers shared their complaint, tells The Guardian.

My wife just asked me how these female Mexican officers could function in these boots. https://t.co/dzO8q4sIvf pic.twitter.com/FydQEN4KiZ

— dave munday (@dmunday) April 8, 2016\n

Interestingly, Querétaro’s police force was fairly recently performing better than most others in Mexico, especially in terms of external oversight, according to Alejandro Hope, a security analyst. But its success came to a screeching halt following the city’s new mayor appointing Rolando Eugenio Hidalgo Eddy to the position of police chief, a move that’s prompted the Querétaro police officers to go on strike demanding Hidalgo Eddy resign.

The retired army general’s affinity for tight-clothes-wearing, high-heeled women in uniform hasn’t exactly been a secret; when working a similar role in the state of Aguascalientes, he formed a squad of hotties similar to the one in Querétaro.

“It is definitely discriminatory, and there’s no evidence that by hiring ‘attractive women’ they will do a better job than anyone else,” says Jorge Kawas, a security analyst based out of Monterrey.

The accusations come on the heels of a countrywide surge in sexual violence, crimes that ostensibly are handled with impunity by the Mexican government. The CEAV, a federal committee for victims, released findings in March that almost two-thirds of women aged 15 or older have been exposed to some sort of violence.

“These are two important facts: That violence against women take place throughout the country and that these are not isolated acts but part of a general trend,” emphasizes the report.

Adding insult to injury is how Hidalgo Eddy has inspired copycats. Foxy female police squads are cropping up all over the country, but, sadly, the stunt is far from harmless. There sometimes aren’t enough police officers on duty and sexual harassment has been reported inside law enforcement.

Ocampo says, “What we’re worried about is that the human rights violations inside the force are going to eventually move toward the public.”