A two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis model for investigating the efficiency of the public security in Mexico

The increasing violent episodes in Mexico suggest a worrying trend. What is more, worrying the majority of the Mexican population is their perception of insecurity and desperation. Public security must be reinforced and strengthened to combat the upward trend of violence in the country. However, one problem that affects violence is the limited resources allocated to public security systems. This paper investigates the technical efficiency of the public security system of 1,730 Mexican municipalities by applying a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The analysis revealed significant differences in the technical efficiency between regions, as well as the municipalities. Furthermore, the results exposed the importance of considering the characteristics of each municipality to create better decision-making strategies to improve the growing violence nationwide.