The PF has been assuming its authority in stages over time, as its budget has grown and it has combined and reorganized police departments from major agencies such as those for migration, treasury, and highways.

[7] When Calderón assumed the presidency, he realized that he could not rely on the federal police nor the intelligence agencies to restore order and crack down the logistics of the mafias.

[7] He then moved the military to parts of Mexico most plagued by drug-violence to target, capture, and – if necessary – kill the leaders of the drug trafficking organizations.

Yet, the president understood that the military could not fight the cartels alone and needed cops to rely on for patrolling, collecting intelligence information, and gathering evidences necessary to prosecute drug traffickers.

[7] The new force has formed part of Mexico's first national crime information system, which stores the fingerprints of everyone arrested in the country.

This decision was said to be not entirely unexpected, given the insufficient number of convictions, the alarming increase of violence, abductions and cases of corruption and complicity with organized crime elements.

[10][11][12][13][14][15] In 2012, it was reported that President Enrique Peña Nieto's government had proposed the creation of a new unit to replace all Federal Police duties.

[18] Shortly after getting into office, Obrador released a plan to create the National Guard under control of the Mexican Armed Forces which would be in charge of "preventing and combating crime".

[23] In 2000, the PF had 10,878 agents and staff: Regulation of the Law of the Federal Police in the Official Gazette of May 17, 2010, to establish the basic organizational structure of this Decentralized Administrative Body, Article 5 of that system, comprising a total of 136 seats of middle and senior management, broken 130 seats structure, as shown below: See article: National Gendarmerie (Mexico) The Policía Federal consists of seven branches of service, known as divisions, administered by a central administration called the General Secretariat (Secretaría General) [24][25] There is also a separate Internal Affairs Unit (Unidad de Asuntos Internos).

[28] The Special Operations Group (GOPES) is the police elite counter terror hostage rescue unit.

The exact information regarding transport vehicles and aircraft that comprise the fleet of the Federal Police is classified, to protect the life and efficiency of agents.