Erika Gandara, 28, is the only police officer in the town of Guadalupe, Mexico, AFP reported on November 22.
The fresh-faced Gandara, who might be mistaken for a high school student in her purple hoodie - if she were not packing an R-15 rifle - said, "I am this town's only cop. I am the law."
"I am not here for humanitarian stuff, I am not here to do social work," underscored Gandara, a law enforcement professional with about two years of experience. She is single and does not have children。
Guadalupe is located 60 kilometers outside Ciudad Juarez, and the valley in which it lies has seen more than 2,700 murders this year alone in presumed drug-related violence。
Gandara started out as a dispatcher in her office last year, when there were 12 agents on the force with her. As the drug violence began to spiral, she began to lose her colleagues one after the other。
"Of my 10 coworkers, a few just resigned and the rest were all killed. Nobody wants to go into policing here, and the budget just isn't there anyway," she shrugged。
In addition to drug violence, her small town sees houses torched，shootouts, and kidnappings. Guadalupe is not unique: in thousands of Mexican towns, police forces are underpaid, insufficiently staffed, and desperately low on hope。