No one says that a police officer’s job is easy. Putting one’s life on the line every day has earned police officers the respect they deserve. Or that most of them do, anyway. A new American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report brings to light the numerous deaths and severe injuries civilians incur at the hands of the Puerto Rico Police Force (PRPD).
With a 17,000 member officer- department, the PRDF is the second largest in America. The ACLU report Island of Impunity: Puerto Rico’s Outlaw Police Force details accounts of extensive civil rights violations by the PRPD including:
Use of excessive and lethal force against civilians, especially in poor and Black neighborhoods and Dominican communities, often resulting in serious injury and death.
Violent suppression of peaceful protestors using batons, rubber bullets, and a toxic form of tear gas that was phased out by mainland U.S. police departments in the 1960’s.
Failure to protect victims of domestic violence and to investigate reported crimes of domestic violence, rape, and other gender-based crimes.
The report also relates:
in 2010 and 2011, PRPD officers killed at least 21 civilians. The per capita rate of fatal police shootings in 2010 was almost triple that of New York City the same year. Only about one percent of rapes are properly reported by the PRPD. In most U.S. jurisdictions the number of reported rapes is four times the number of homicides – in 2010, the PRPD reported 1,000 homicides, but only 39 rapes.
Puerto Rico’s per capita rate of women murdered by their partners is the highest in the world. In 2011, the number of women killed by their partners in Puerto Rico was six times higher than Los Angeles, which has about the same population of 3.7 million.
Between 2005 and 2010, more than 1,700 PRPD officers were arrested for criminal activity including assault, domestic violence, drug trafficking and murder – amounting to 10 percent of the force. At least 84 still-active PRPD officers have been arrested two or more times for domestic violence.
The ACLU offers recommendations on what should be done to correct the problems civilians in Puerto Rico are experiencing at the hands of those whose are hired to protect them.
The Justice Department should enter into a court-enforceable and court-monitored agreement with the PRPD.
The PRPD should develop and implement policies on the use of force, improved training, the investigation of civilian complaints of police abuse, and the discipline of officers.
Puerto Rico’s legislature should create an independent and effective oversight body to monitor the PRPD.
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