Sexual harassment and assault are prevalent even among those who have sworn to protect the public from such crimes, the recently created Mexico City police Gender Unit has revealed.

According to an article by Mexico News Daily, the office already looks into 205 open cases of assault or machista violence, 130 of which were filed in 2019.

Sahara Sánchez Nieto, Gender Unit director said in an interview that while the force has always investigated internal reports of gender violence, having a specific office for such complaints has encouraged more victims to speak out.

"Now with this unit that was created, women feel safer when filing reports," she said.

According to government watchdog group Causa en Común, or Common Cause, 68 percent of female police officers have either received lascivious comments from their male co-workers or have been sexually harassed or assaulted.

Its data also showed that 21 percent admit they had not reported the incidents because they either didn't know they could or didn't know where to do so.

November last year when the Gender Unit was launched to address the long-standing problem, in time for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Following its establishment, Mexico City Attorney General's Office reported that the unit had received 117 complaints of sexual aggression by police.

The new unit not only serves female police officers who have been victimized by their peers or ranking officers, both on and off duty, it is also specially designed to deal with reports of gender violence from civilian women who are assaulted by the police.

In the first months of 2020, 13 such cases have been forwarded to the city's Council of Honor and Justice, the agency charged to analyze the evidence and determine sanctions. Several officers have already been subjected to disciplinary actions.

Sánchez emphasized that the strength of the sanctions has not changed since the creation of the unit. Sanctions may vary from a written reprimand to 24-36 hours in jail to a department transfer, while serious cases can lead to dismissal.

"It depends on the gravity of the conduct. For example, for rape, it's dismissal. Sexual assault, the same, dismissal when there are ways to prove it. That's why we work with the Attorney General's sexual crimes unit," she said.

She added that her office aims not only to remove guilty officers from their posts, but also to bring criminal charges against those whose crimes call for it.

The Gender Unit also holds the power to conduct investigations despite the absence of a criminal complaint.

"There are several ways that complaints come to us," said agent Judith Escobar. "They come to us directly or we go out for them, we go to different sectors, we do field work."

To do this, Escobar and her team perform random interviews and review the city's security cameras to detect any irregular behavior.

The unit is composed of officers specifically trained to deal with gender violence, as well as two lawyers, three psychologists, two human rights specialists and two gender violence educators.

The office also calls on women to stand and file reports against their aggressors through a public relations campaign.

Violence in gender especially with women is still a national issue in Mexico. Sexual harassment in policing is equally alarming in the national level.

Recent records from the National Map of Femicides in Mexico reveal that the femicide rate has alarmingly increased by over six percent or from five or six death to ten to eleven deaths a day.

In the year 2016, the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security have gathered over 602 confirmed cases of femicides. In 2019, about 976 cases were recorded.