( CNN ) -- In a campaign to cleanse its national police force of `` rotten apples , '' Honduras has placed 176 police officers under investigation for a range of alleged crimes , from corruption to murder . All the officers belong to the same police post , which is based in a Tegucigalpa neighborhood known as `` La Granja , '' or the farm , Security Ministry spokesman Silvio Inestrosa told CNN Friday . Officers who worked at the post during the past five years are under investigation , he said . The police scrutiny comes as distrust of police officers reaches new highs , following the killing of two university students , allegedly by police officers . `` As an institution , we have to strengthen the police , but we have to remove the rotten apples , '' President Porfirio Lobo said during a speech Thursday . Honduras has the world 's highest murder rate , with a rate in 2010 of 82.1 per 100,000 inhabitants , according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime . According to a recent report by the country 's own human rights commission , that rate could increase to 86 per 100,000 this year . Despite the high criminality , Hondurans do n't always turn to the police for help . According to residents , the police are sometimes to be more feared than criminals . This is the context under which two university students last month decided to flee from police instead of being pulled over . According to the national police , the officers shot and injured one of the students and headed toward a hospital . But along the way , police said , the officers instead decided to take the pair to a different location and execute them . The officers implicated in the killings are from the same district that is under investigation . Already , four officers who have been charged with covering up the killings have appeared before a judge . The four officers accused of actually carrying out the killings are fugitives . The investigations and possible firings of the 176 is latest of a series of steps that the government has taken since the outcry over the killings . Days after the incident , the national police shook up its top ranks . `` In these times of violence it is necessary to have new actions , vitality , energy and teamwork with the benefit of the Honduran people in mind , '' Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said when he announced the changes . Also , lawmakers on Thursday rewrote the country 's policing laws , stripping the national police of its internal affairs department , and handing over such investigations to a new , independent force . Journalist Elvin Sandoval contributed to this report .
In Honduras , 176 police officers are under investigation . They all worked at the same police post in 2010 . All who worked at the post during the past five years are under investigation .