In early 1978 a group of four officers made up of two Douglas Police Department investigators and two supervisors from the Sonora State Police met in Douglas, Arizona in an informal meeting. It was at this gathering that the group of four came up with the idea of having meetings between the authorities of Arizona and Sonora. They decided to call this meeting/reunion PISA (Policia Internacional Sonora-Arizona).

The main purpose of having the PISA meeting was to establish better communications between the law enforcement agencies of Arizona and Sonora to combat criminal activity along the border. This has now evolved to include agencies from other states on both sides of the border.

Another reason for having the PISA meetings was to offer training in police related courses and to learn how criminal justice systems operate in both countries.

Since DPS began working with the Mexican authorities in the area of auto theft over the past twenty years the recovery of stolen vehicles has increased from a couple hundred a year to over a thousand vehicles a year, on average.

Throughout the years the PISA reunions have grown from a few participants to almost four hundred participants representing all levels of government to include the Mexican State Department.

Due to the PISA reunions several Federal agencies have initiated new programs to increase the assistance and cooperation with the Mexican authorities. One of these programs was started by the FBI in 1988 and is referred to as MALLET (Mexican American Liaison-Law Enforcement Training) seminars. The FBI hosts five MALLET seminars annually throughout the Border States for Mexican officers. Also the U.S Marshall’s service now has agents assigned as liaison officers with Mexico to locate and apprehend U.S fugitives.

Another era where the cooperation has increased due to the PISA reunions has been in the rescue of Mexican Nationals that are lost in the deserts of Arizona. Also the cooperation to apprehend and prosecute smugglers of undocumented aliens has greatly increased in recent years.

Since the adoption of the NAFTA Treaty there is a new area of mutual concern for both the U.S. and Mexico, which is the safety on the highways related to commercial vehicles. Since 1995 the Arizona Department of Public Safety has been involved in providing educational seminars to Mexican carriers. In 1997 DPS provided four eighty-hour CVSA (Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance) courses, certifying over one hundred Mexican Federal Highway Patrol Officers and thirty Federal Transportation Inspectors as Inspectors in the Federal Motor Carrier Rules and Regulations. This on-going project will continue in August 2003 as DPS has scheduled educational seminars for commercial drivers in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa.