The police arrested men based on neighborhood gossip or innocent tattoos, the families of those swept up in El Salvador’s mass arrests have long claimed.

Now, some police officers who were part of President Nayib Bukele’s sweeping crackdown on gangs are saying the same thing.

Nearly a dozen officers from El Salvador’s national police described facing intense pressure to meet arrest quotas, according to a Human Rights Watch report released this week, as well as three officers from that group who spoke directly to The New York Times, and the leader of the country’s main group advocating for police officers.

The quotas were imposed after Mr. Bukele declared a state of emergency in 2022, which remains in effect today, and oversaw a campaign of mass arrests, the officers and report said.

Mr. Bukele’s plan resulted in an astounding turnaround for the tiny Central American country, which for decades had been racked by gang violence. El Salvador quickly became one of the safest countries in the region, a feat Mr. Bukele touted at the White House after he imprisoned some of President Trump’s deportees.

But the officers and police group leader said arbitrary arrests helped drive that turnaround — as did a fear among the police that they, too, could be dragged to jail as gang collaborators if they defied orders.