Mexico hopes chip signals gain vs. crime

MEXICO CITY -- The long arm of the law has gone bionic.

Mexico's attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, announced this week that he has a microchip implanted in one of his arms. The chip, enclosed in a sleek capsule about the size of a grain of rice, emits a low-frequency radio wave that can be used to locate Macedo, as he told reporters, "at any moment, wherever I am."

The chips also function as an electronic identification that grants Macedo and about 160 of his lieutenants access to a suite of offices on the third floor of the attorney general's headquarters, which houses a modern, $30 million computerized database of crime, which President Vicente Fox inaugurated Monday.

A scanner at the door reads the identification numbers in the chips. Once scanned and recognized, Macedo and the others are permitted to enter the offices, where officials are focused on using computers to analyze crime statistics. Analysts said Mexico's lack of centralized and computerized crime data is a key reason that most crimes here are never solved.

Fox has faced growing public dissatisfaction with high crime rates. Thousands of Mexicans crammed Mexico City's main square last month, demanding more government action against criminals.

The chips, injected through a syringelike device, are the latest weapons in the government's offensive against crime.

About 1,000 people in Mexico have had the VeriChip implanted, said Antonio Aceves, president of Solusat, the chip's Mexican distributor. He said most customers have had medical problems.