Tourist police in Tijuana and Rosarito are patrolling the streets on Friday. Both cities are trying to lure back visitors this spring break after enormous drop offs during the past few years. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
128 tourist police hit the street in Tijuana and 20 in Rosarito.
Rosarito Mayor Hugo Torres says the agents are a select group who performed well on a polygraph test the whole force took recently.
Hugo : The ones who did the best, as well the ones who speak English. And, at the same time, we will have tourism students assisting tourists with information around the spring break area.
State and local officials have made cracking down on crime and courting tourists a priority.
Torres says reports last year of a visitor who was raped and two attacks on surfers and off-road racers were rebroadcast so many times it felt like every visitor was risking life and limb.
He says, ironically, the region is safer that it has been.
He says tourists are not the targets of kidnappings and shoot outs that have dominated headlines this year.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
