The appointment of Hernández Fraley is a key early step in a sweeping overhaul of the Puerto Rico Police Department required by the U.S. Department of Justice. The replacement for Juan Mattos, the court monitor assigned to oversee compliance with the reform will be named soon.

Army officer to map PR police overhaul

By CB Online Staff

cbnews@caribbeanbusinesspr.com; cbprdigital@gmail.com

Puerto Rico Police Superintendent James Tuller Cintrón has appointed retired Army Col. Michelle Hernández Fraley as a special aide whose mission is to craft an overhaul of the second-largest police force in any U.S. jurisdiction.

Hernández Fraley, the first Puerto Rican woman to graduate from West Point, served 30 years in the Army before retiring this year and moving back to Puerto Rico.

The Río Piedras native is tasked with analyzing the entire structure of the Police Department including personnel, resources and technology with an eye toward overhauling the agency.

Hernández Fraley holds a doctorate in organizational leader and two masters degrees. She was posted by the Army in Central America, South America and Asia and served as a technology and information officer in the Bush and Clinton administrations.

Her final post before retiring was as commander of the Walter Reed Warrior Transition Brigade, a program for dealing with wounded warriors that returned from the battlefront to assume other roles in the military or transition into private life.

Tuller, a veteran New York City police officer, took the reins of the Police Department late last year.

His appointment of Hernández Fraley is a key early step in a sweeping overhaul of the Puerto Rico Police Department required by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In July, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Gov. Alejandro García Padilla sealed a far-ranging civil rights agreement to modernize and reform the Police Department that resolves a civil suit initiated by the federal government in December 2012 to remedy a pattern and practice of police misconduct.

Implementing those reforms will be key on Tuller’s agenda moving forward and it is expected to stretch to a decade and require tens of millions of dollars in additional investment in the Police Department.

The court monitor assigned to oversee compliance with the reform, Juan Mattos, stepped down last week for personal reasons. Puerto Rico officials say a replacement will be named soon.