A NEW YORK CITY police officer stands outside Grand Central Terminal on May 2. Policing has become more disciplined, focused and data-driven over the past two decades. Getty Images
BY CIARAN GILES ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
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Monday, December 23, 2013
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First Anniversary of The Agreement to Reform the Puerto Rico Police Department
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 21, 2012
Justice Department Enters into Agreement to Reform the Puerto Rico Police Department
The Justice Department (DOJ) today entered into a sweeping agreement with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and Governor Luis Fortuño to resolve its civil investigation of the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD). The complaint and the agreement were filed today in the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico, along with a joint motion requesting a temporary stay of the proceedings until April 15, 2013 to provide the incoming administration of Governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla sufficient time to review the agreement.
The comprehensive agreement addresses wide-ranging and ongoing constitutional violations by PRPD that were documented in a lengthy DOJ report issued in September 2011. The department found reasonable cause to believe that PRPD engages in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force, use of unreasonable force designed to suppress protected speech, and unconstitutional searches and seizures. The agreement also addresses allegations that PRPD fails to investigate sex crimes and domestic violence, and engages in discriminatory policing.
“We appreciate the hard work of Governor Fortuño, Superintendent Hector Pesquera, and their staff. Together, and with great input from the public, we have designed a comprehensive blueprint for reform that provides a solid foundation that will professionalize and support the hardworking men and women of PRPD as they protect the people of Puerto Rico,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We have also met with Governor-elect Garcia-Padilla, who recognizes that constitutional policing and effective policing go hand in hand. We look forward to working with Governor-elect García Padilla and his incoming administration to finalize the agreement and begin the critical work of rebuilding PRPD. Ensuring effective, constitutional policing is not a partisan issue, and we appreciate the commitment of Governor Fortuño and Governor-elect García Padilla to the reforms embodied in the agreement. The successful implementation of the reforms contained in this agreement will help to reduce crime, ensure respect for the Constitution and restore public confidence in PRPD.”
Today’s agreement was reached after extensive negotiations with commonwealth officials and their police consultants. The agreement provides a comprehensive blueprint for meaningful, sustainable reform and reflects the input of many community stakeholders from throughout the Commonwealth, including police affinity groups, members of the Puerto Rico business community, students, representatives of the Dominican community, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender communities.
The agreement addresses the policies, procedures, training, internal and external oversight, disciplinary systems and information and data integrity mechanisms that caused or contributed to the pattern or practice of misconduct. It also details necessary changes intended to ensure that police services are delivered to the people of Puerto Rico in a manner that is effective, complies with the Constitution, and promotes the community’s trust in PRPD. For instance, the agreement contains provisions that are designed to increase transparency and promote PRPD’s responsiveness to the community, including measures that require regular meetings with community representatives to facilitate cooperation and communication; collection and dissemination of accurate and up-to-date crime statistics; community outreach programs in each PRPD region; and independent and periodic compliance assessments that are available to the public.
The purpose of the joint motion requesting a temporary stay of the proceedings is to provide the incoming administration with a meaningful opportunity to review the agreement. The department and representatives of Governor Fortuño have met independently with Governor-elect García Padilla and his transition team to brief them on the investigation’s findings and the agreement. The stay, requested until April 15, 2013, will provide Governor-elect García Padilla and his incoming administration with a meaningful opportunity to review the agreement, and either accept it or negotiate necessary changes, before the department and Commonwealth request approval and entry of the agreement as an order. During this period, the department will continue its ongoing outreach into communities across Puerto Rico to seek input and feedback. Once approved and entered by the district court, the agreement will resolve the department’s civil action, and the implementation phase will immediately begin.
A copy of the complaint, the agreement, the joint motion to stay the proceedings, and September 2011 letter of findings can be found at www.justice.gov/crt .
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Civil Rights Division
Spain weighs extradition of Puerto Rican Woman - Metro, SJS
Spain weighs extradition of Puerto Rican Woman - AP - Metro
POSTED: December 18
:
MADRID (AP) - A Puerto Rican required by U.S. courts to answer the charge to hire a murderer to kill his wealthy Canadian husband said Wednesday at his extradition hearing in Spain he is innocent and the victim of subjects "corrupt and mafia" .
Visibly nervous, Aurea Vazquez Rijos, 33, said before the High Court did not want to be extradited, adding that in recent years had legally lived in Italy and was never aware that he sought justice until he reached Spain.
Vazquez was arrested in Madrid in June to arrive from Italy, where he lived since 2008. A U.S. jury instruction that made the year before by allegations that offered three million dollars to a man to kill her husband Adam Anhang, 32, who was found dead and stabbed to death in Puerto Rico in 2005 while walking with Vazquez near a bar he had acquired for her to operate.
Vazquez then refused to cooperate with the police and filed a civil suit against Anhang's family, which demanded a compensation of one million dollars in damages and millions of dollars over the goods he left. A judge in Puerto Rico rejected that demand.
Since then, authorities have charged a suspect, Alex Pabon Colon, of having committed the murder. He pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators.
Several more people, including family members Vazquez, have been arrested and charged in the case.
Anhang had developed hotels and condos by the sea in Puerto Rico and served as CEO of a software company for Internet gambling, based in Costa Rica.
The court ruling on extradition in the next three weeks is awaited.
Vazquez said she had a permit to stay in Italy, had twins with another man there, and said working as a tour guide and traveled to Europe frequently. In Italy he renewed his American passport last year, he added.
He asked the court how he could have done all that if there had been an arrest warrant against him, and said she had been tricked into thinking she was meeting with a group of tourists in Madrid when he flew to the Spanish capital in June . She was arrested off the plane.
There is an act of "mafia and corruption" behind it, he said.
The lawyer for Vazquez, Isaac Abad Gómez, presented arguments against extradition, which stated that there was no guarantee that his client will not face life in prison without bail, something U.S. officials have warned that hangs on it. He said the arrest warrant was defective.
The Spanish laws do not allow the extradition of persons who could face the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The prosecutor in the High Court said he was in favor of extradition, provided assurances that will not face any of these two punishments are provided.
The defendant sobbed a little when she was handcuffed in the back and taken out of court.
Abe Anhang, the victim's father, said he was pleased by the arrest of Vasquez.
"Our family is grateful for the efforts of the FBI, Interpol and the Spanish police apprehended it, and the courts of Spain to handle this so efficiently," said the man, who lives in Winnipeg, Canada."After eight years we hope justice is done and the case is closed."
Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory in the Caribbean whose inhabitants are U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans can not vote for president of the country and not pay income tax, but are under the jurisdiction of federal law and may be sentenced to death. The Puerto Rican government has asked federal prosecutors to stop seeking the imposition of capital punishment on the island.
In recent history Puerto Rican juries have rejected the death penalty in six cases.
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SJDS - 12.23.13
Gov. Dismisses, Mocks U.S. Senate Leaders’ Rejection of a New “Commonwealth” Status | Puerto Rico Report | Bahamas and China to Allow Reciprocal Visa Waivers December 23, 2013 | 6:00 am |
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- US Hegemony and Puerto Rico’s Economic Crisis | Global Research
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Caribbean struggles to stem resurgent tide of drug trafficking - FT.com
Caribbean struggles to stem resurgent tide of drug trafficking - FT.com
December 18, 2013 2:00 pm
Caribbean struggles to stem resurgent tide of drug trafficking
As night descended on the Caribbean on October 17, a US Coast Guard patrol aircraft spied something suspicious in the seas south of St Croix, one of the many beautiful specks of land that make up the US Virgin Islands: a 30-foot speedboat with three people aboard, loaded with bales and slicing through the waves towards Puerto Rico.
A coast guard cutter and a specialised pursuit boat were dispatched from Puerto Rico to intercept the speedboat. Before dawn had broken, the coast guard boarded and found more than a tonne of cocaine, with a wholesale value of more than $34m.
ON THIS STORY
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IN LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN
The coast guard was thrilled at the haul, hailing the “complex and dangerous operation” undertaken in the dead of night. But it was a rare triumph. US and regional law enforcement agencies have been struggling to stem a resurgent tide of drugs flowing through the Caribbean.
After a relatively calm two decades, during which Mexico emerged as the dominant smuggling point for trafficking drugs into the US, local and international officials say the Caribbean is once again becoming an important transit route, as cartels take advantage of the region’s economic problems. Criminals are reactivating old operations in the archipelago or beefing up existing ones in places such as the Dominican Republic.
The US Drugs Enforcement Administration estimates that 14 per cent of all cocaine smuggled into the US in the first half of the year came via the Caribbean – twice the rate of 2012. “It’s acute when you consider that the overall flow [into the US] is down,” says Vito Guarino, DEA special agent in charge of Caribbean operations.
It is still a far cry from the 1980s, when up to 75 per cent of the cocaine seized between South America and the US was taken in the Caribbean, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The unremitting flow of cocaine into Florida in particular inspired cultural touchstones like the movie Scarface and Miami Vice, the US television series.
But the recent surge still worries US and Caribbean officials, who fear the region is acutely vulnerable to traffickers. Many countries are trying to cope with a protracted economic downturn and mounting debts, which are forcing governments to hack away at budgets and pushing up unemployment.
“You’re unemployed and starving, and someone offers you $1,000 to take a go-fast boat full of drugs to the US. What would we do in this situation?” Mr Guarino says.
The region is also paying the price of successes elsewhere. Analysts say one of the big reasons why cartels are re-establishing themselves in the Caribbean is the clear security improvement in Mexico. As police “squeeze the narco balloon” there, it swells in the tropical islands to the east, according to Daniel Sachs, a Mexico-based analyst at Control Risks, a consultancy.
The impact is invidious. Cartels frequently ally themselves with local gangs on islands like Trinidad, paying for protection and smuggling services with guns and drugs. That feeds domestic drug abuse and exacerbates already high crime rates, as heavily armed local gangs fight for lucrative turf and cartel contracts. These gangs are the cause of the region’s extreme murder rates, argues Owen Ellington, head of Jamaica’s police force.
Moreover, drug money can buy many friends in a region where even an army general or senior police officer will often make only a few thousand dollars a month, and political donations and spending usually go unreported, activists and diplomats say.
You’re unemployed and starving, and someone offers you $1,000 to take a go-fast boat full of drugs to the US. What would we do in this situation?
- Vito Guarino, DEA special agent in charge of the Caribbean
Security officials say the Dominican Republic is the main transshipment point for drugs bound for the US and Europe, due to the cultural and linguistic ties with the cocaine-producing countries in South and Central America. However, smaller statelets like St Kitts and Nevis, which simply cannot afford to defend their coasts, are the ones that have arguably suffered the most from the increase in trafficking.
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, estimates that about half his country’s murders are directly tied to the drug trade. “The bulk of the drugs is for the US and European markets, but [the traffickers] bring guns with them,” he complains.
US and international officials are keenly aware of the resurgent danger, and have launched a number of programmes in response.
The US government established a “Caribbean Basin Security Initiative” in 2009 to provide countries with technical assistance, equipment and training to combat crime and drug smuggling. This includes setting up detection dog units, improving prisons, providing cargo scanners, polygraphs and interceptor boats, and sharing more information with local security forces.
Interactive
This interactive guide shows the global recession has had markedly different impacts on different countries in the Caribbean
“The resources deployed under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative can be described as a drop in the bucket,” says Freundel Stuart, the prime minister of Barbados.
Optimism is in short supply. Even if the US and regional law enforcement succeed in staunching the drug flow, this could paradoxically lead to an increase in violence as local gangs and cartels fight over a smaller pie, notes Amado de Andrés, the UNODC’s regional representative. He points out that bloodshed in Jamaicaincreased dramatically even as it became a less important transit point for cocaine in the 1990s. Mexico has seen a similar trend more recently.
In many countries there appears to be resignation that drugs trafficking will always be a challenge, and concern that the problem will inevitably worsen in the coming years.
“We’re right in the middle of the world’s biggest producer and consumer of drugs,” observes Bernardo Vega, a former Dominican central bank governor and ambassador to the US. “If only they could grow cocaine in the Rocky Mountains,” he sighs.
The Financial Times spent two weeks reporting across the Caribbean, travel funded in part by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, to explore the impact of the region’s economic downturn
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Behavior and Law: Hard Times, Fewer Crimes - WSJ - May 28, 2011
Behavior and Law: Hard Times, Fewer Crimes - WSJ - May 28, 2011: THE SATURDAY ESSAY Hard Times, Fewer Crimes The economic downturn has not led to more crime—contrary to the experts' predictio...
Updated May 28, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
News Reviews and Opinions: News Updates: 2:11 PM 12/17/2013
News Reviews and Opinions: News Updates: 2:11 PM 12/17/2013: News Recent World News - 12.17.13 Judge Questions Legality of N.S.A. Phone Records - NYTimes.com NSA Phone Spying 'Almost Certain...
Crime In Puerto Rico: Attempts At Analysis And Search For The Solutions; In Facts And Opinions - Web Review
Last Update: Tuesday, December 17, 2013 (11:42 AM 12/17/2013)
Crime In Puerto Rico: Attempts At Analysis And Search For The Solutions; In Facts And Opinions - Web Review
Serious crime rate down in PR in 2013 - Caribbean Business
Issued : Tuesday, December 17, 2013 07:23 AM
crime in puerto rico - GS
puerto rico crime statistics - GS
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Murder Rate and Fear Rise in Puerto Rico - NYTimes.com
June 20, 2011
Murder Rate and Fear Rise in Puerto Rico
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
LOÍZA, P.R. — As people strolled past the Alambique liquor store here recently, the puddle of blood and the bullet-shattered storefront behind it scarcely merited a glance. Yet another young man had been shot. Yet another tally would be added to the record books.
For Roberto Clemente, who lives down the street from the crime scene, such casual acceptance illustrates just how deeply Puerto Ricans have been shaken by the island’s murder wave.
“Enough is enough,” said Mr. Clemente, 59, who works for the town doing cleanup duties, as he motioned toward the liquor store. “We live unsafely in our homes. The cops know who did what, but there are no witnesses. Even if you see who did it, you stay quiet.”
Now plagued by a steadily worsening murder rate, more Puerto Ricans are second-guessing their evening plans, contemplating moving to the mainland and sending away for gun permits in larger numbers to protect themselves. And the police are rolling out new strategies they hope will bring things under control.
So far this year, there have been 525 murders in Puerto Rico, a number that is outpacing last year’s 983 homicides, the second-highest ever, and the 995 in 1994. New York City, with a population a bit over twice that of Puerto Rico, reported 199 murders through the middle of this month, with a total of 536 in 2010.
High murder rates are not unusual in Puerto Rico. Between 1980 to 2005 the average annual homicide rate was 19 per 100,000 in Puerto Rico and 8 per 100,000 on the mainland.
Murders on the island declined early last decade, only to spike again recently for the same reasons they did 20 years ago, when drug trafficking, gangs and carjackings rocked Puerto Rico.
José Figueroa Sancha, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who is now superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department, said the 17,000-member force (second largest in the country, after New York’s) is now using CompStat, a computer system for tracking crime patterns that was first used successfully in New York City.
“We are transforming the police force and reorganizing them,” Mr. Figueroa said at his headquarters. “We will give them the weapons they need and also the technology we need.”
Last year, Gov. Luis Fortuño deployed the National Guard to try to curb the killings, a tactic used in the early 1990s. But the extra patrols proved ineffective.
While the homicide plague predominates in poor areas, the concern has become acute this year because it has occasionally spilled into San Juan’s tourist areas and crossed into wealthy districts. It has also broken into the open, with shootouts occurring on city streets and major thoroughfares.
Last Wednesday, for example, Maurice Joseph Spagnoletti, an executive vice president of Doral Bank in Puerto Rico, was shot to death as he drove his Lexus down a busy road in San Juan shortly after evening rush. The assailant fired three shots into his neck.
The police in Puerto Rico say that nearly half of all homicides on the island — a popular way station for narcotics shipped from South American to the United States — are connected to drug-trafficking turf wars. Of the other half, 18 so far this year were related to domestic violence and 18 involved people who were gay or transgender.
Two murders were recently reported in Condado, a tourist section, but Puerto Rico has seen no decline in bookings, said Clarisa Jiminéz, the head of the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association. “It is true we have faced some situations in the past,” she said, “but the tourist areas are very safe.”
Recognizing that the island’s homicide rate is unacceptably high and spiraling higher, Governor Fortuño has labeled it a priority while underscoring that the incidence of other crimes, like robbery and burglary, has decreased. Puerto Rican police officials are also working more closely with federal agencies to bring down the murder rate.
The police department intends to extend training to seven months and beef up instruction on topics like community policing, civil rights and the use of force, Mr. Figueroa said. The department will also begin a system of data collection on episodes that involve the use of force. A new anonymous tip line and Web site were inaugurated recently.
The police force has been under investigation by the Department of Justice since 2008, and the American Civil Liberties Union has been pressing the government to finish.
“An important component of this is the police department’s relationship with the community,” Mr. Figueroa acknowledged. “There have been allegations of police brutality, especially in the Dominican and gay communities.”
The A.C.L.U. has compiled its own report listing accusations of abuse by police officers against Puerto Ricans, including the poor, students and workers.
The past 18 months have seen an increase in the number of protests by Puerto Rican workers and students against the government, which has cut 23,000 jobs and raised university tuition. The police have reacted forcefully to protesters, in some instances using tear gas, Tasers and night sticks. Several protesters have reported being beaten, the A.C.L.U. said.
“While it is nothing new that police have had carte blanche in their dealings with the low-income and immigrant community, it’s the first time it has broken through to dissidents, students and the middle class,” said Anthony D. Romero, the A.C.L.U.’s executive director.
Mr. Romero said he applauded the police department’s recent efforts to address these longstanding problems. “But until the reforms are implemented, it’s hard to know how serious the reforms are,” he said.
The worry is palpable in and around San Juan, even as far away as Ponce, that the problem is getting worse, not better. One woman, a crime victim who was too afraid to give her name, said she was still panicked by an attempted carjacking she experienced nearly three years ago, as the wave was beginning anew.
A man walked up to her Lexus as she was parked in a wealthy neighborhood and pointed a gun at her face. Her two children sat in the backseat. He tried to open her doors. Instead, she put the car in reverse and fled quickly.
She wound up running the man over without realizing it and killing him. He had had more than two dozen charges against him and had been responsible for several other carjackings that week.
With the situation not improving quickly enough, the woman has considered moving to the mainland.
But in Loíza most residents don’t have that option. They have grown fatalistic about the homicides and violence, in general, which has residents avoiding whole swaths of their own neighborhood.
“Now we leave it to God,” said Antonio Ramos García, 59, a lifelong resident who works for the local election board.
See also:
Sentencing Law and Policy: Why are murder rates so high in Puerto Rico and might criminal law be to blame?
'Don't Give Up On Us': Puerto Ricans Wrestle With High Crime : NPR
February 07, 2013 3:27 AM
The island's police superintendent, Hector Pesquera, says tackling the crime problem has been a challenge. Before he ran the police force, which is responsible for the entire island of more than 3.5 million people, Pesquera spent years leading the FBI bureau in Miami.
The picture wasn't pretty when he returned to Puerto Rico. He came home to a fleet of police cars in despair, aging equipment and officers arrested for corruption. Drug cartels, he says, were also moving their businesses to the island from Mexico.
"Plus, unfortunately, we broke the all-time record for murders [in 2011]," he says. "We had 1,136, I believe."
It's a record that Pesquera and his team are trying to combat.
"We had 186, 187 less murders, so we're slowly making a dent," he says.
...
America's Role
Pesquera says political muscle is needed to make the case to Washington, D.C., that solving the drug and crime problems here will help people on the mainland.
In many ways, Puerto Rico is America's third border, Pesquera says. Drugs that enter from Latin America can head right to the mainland without going through customs. According to Pesquera, 80 percent of the drugs that come through the island end up in cities and communities on the East Coast.
...
Puerto Rico's resident commissioner, or nonvoting member of Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, says the Department of Homeland Security will soon begin an intensive effort to curb drug violence. DHS would only confirm that it has expanded anti-drug operations in Puerto Rico and continues to deploy personnel there.
But police superintendent Pesquera says he's still not convinced that people on the mainland are paying enough attention to how dire the circumstances are in Puerto Rico.
...
Violent crime and drugs have long been issues on the island, but many Puerto Ricans say they used to feel safe as long as they weren't involved in the drug war. Now, crime feels more widespread, Romero says, affecting the poor and rich alike.
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Puerto Rico tackling fearful murder rate - 12/11/2012 | MiamiHerald.com
After coming under scathing criticism for a lackluster response to a surge in the Caribbean drug trade and the violence that accompanied it, the federal government has teamed with local law enforcement to target gangs and robbers caught with guns. The feds appear to have finally found a strategy to tamp the unprecedented murder rate, which succeeded where air patrols and cutter deployments could not: locking up the bad guys.
“You’re never going to see a headline: ‘This is how many murders were prevented,’ ” said Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s police superintendent, responsible for what is essentially an island-wide police force. By November, “175 fewer people were murdered in Puerto Rico this year. That’s an 18 percent drop. That’s huge. We’ll do another 175 next year and keep doing that until it’s at a manageable level.”
In 2011, Puerto Rico broke its own record by logging 1,135 homicides — 30 killings per 100,000 residents.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/11/v-print/3137968/puerto-rico-tackling-fearful-murder.html#storylink=cpy
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crime in puerto rico statistics - GS
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Crime In Puerto Rico: Attempts At Analysis And Search For The Solutions; In Facts And Opinions - Web Review
Serious crime rate down in PR in 2013 - Caribbean Business
Issued : Tuesday, December 17, 2013 07:23 AM
Serious crime rate down in PR in 2013
By CB Online Staff
The incidence of serious crime in Puerto Rico declined over the past year, according to Police Department statistics.
The Puerto Rico Police Department said that serious crimes – including murder, rape, robbery, serious assaults, break-ins and car theft – fell 6.7 percent so far this year compared to 2012.
“These numbers reflect the daily efforts of our officers and provide proof of the work that the police are doing every day to improve the quality of life in Puerto Rico,” said Police Superintendent James Tuller, who took over as the island’s top cop this month.
Tuller, a former high-ranking member of the New York Police Department who replaced former Police Superintendent Héctor Pesquera, said more work still needs to be done.
“These results are not enough and compel us to not be complacent and to work harder.”
Through Sunday, a total of 46,664 type 1 crimes had been registered, compared to 50,079 in 2012, according to the Police Department data.
The figure for this year includes 859 murders, 7.4 percent fewer than in 2012, 5,769 robberies (down 5.4 percent) and 13,461 break-ins (down 9.2 percent).
See also:
See also:
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Links and Quotes: crime in puerto rico - GS
puerto rico crime statistics - GS
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Quotes: from: crime in puerto rico - GS - Images
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Murder Rate and Fear Rise in Puerto Rico - NYTimes.com
June 20, 2011
Murder Rate and Fear Rise in Puerto Rico
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
LOÍZA, P.R. — As people strolled past the Alambique liquor store here recently, the puddle of blood and the bullet-shattered storefront behind it scarcely merited a glance. Yet another young man had been shot. Yet another tally would be added to the record books.
For Roberto Clemente, who lives down the street from the crime scene, such casual acceptance illustrates just how deeply Puerto Ricans have been shaken by the island’s murder wave.
“Enough is enough,” said Mr. Clemente, 59, who works for the town doing cleanup duties, as he motioned toward the liquor store. “We live unsafely in our homes. The cops know who did what, but there are no witnesses. Even if you see who did it, you stay quiet.”
Now plagued by a steadily worsening murder rate, more Puerto Ricans are second-guessing their evening plans, contemplating moving to the mainland and sending away for gun permits in larger numbers to protect themselves. And the police are rolling out new strategies they hope will bring things under control.
So far this year, there have been 525 murders in Puerto Rico, a number that is outpacing last year’s 983 homicides, the second-highest ever, and the 995 in 1994. New York City, with a population a bit over twice that of Puerto Rico, reported 199 murders through the middle of this month, with a total of 536 in 2010.
High murder rates are not unusual in Puerto Rico. Between 1980 to 2005 the average annual homicide rate was 19 per 100,000 in Puerto Rico and 8 per 100,000 on the mainland.
Murders on the island declined early last decade, only to spike again recently for the same reasons they did 20 years ago, when drug trafficking, gangs and carjackings rocked Puerto Rico.
José Figueroa Sancha, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who is now superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police Department, said the 17,000-member force (second largest in the country, after New York’s) is now using CompStat, a computer system for tracking crime patterns that was first used successfully in New York City.
“We are transforming the police force and reorganizing them,” Mr. Figueroa said at his headquarters. “We will give them the weapons they need and also the technology we need.”
Last year, Gov. Luis Fortuño deployed the National Guard to try to curb the killings, a tactic used in the early 1990s. But the extra patrols proved ineffective.
While the homicide plague predominates in poor areas, the concern has become acute this year because it has occasionally spilled into San Juan’s tourist areas and crossed into wealthy districts. It has also broken into the open, with shootouts occurring on city streets and major thoroughfares.
Last Wednesday, for example, Maurice Joseph Spagnoletti, an executive vice president of Doral Bank in Puerto Rico, was shot to death as he drove his Lexus down a busy road in San Juan shortly after evening rush. The assailant fired three shots into his neck.
The police in Puerto Rico say that nearly half of all homicides on the island — a popular way station for narcotics shipped from South American to the United States — are connected to drug-trafficking turf wars. Of the other half, 18 so far this year were related to domestic violence and 18 involved people who were gay or transgender.
Two murders were recently reported in Condado, a tourist section, but Puerto Rico has seen no decline in bookings, said Clarisa Jiminéz, the head of the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association. “It is true we have faced some situations in the past,” she said, “but the tourist areas are very safe.”
Recognizing that the island’s homicide rate is unacceptably high and spiraling higher, Governor Fortuño has labeled it a priority while underscoring that the incidence of other crimes, like robbery and burglary, has decreased. Puerto Rican police officials are also working more closely with federal agencies to bring down the murder rate.
The police department intends to extend training to seven months and beef up instruction on topics like community policing, civil rights and the use of force, Mr. Figueroa said. The department will also begin a system of data collection on episodes that involve the use of force. A new anonymous tip line and Web site were inaugurated recently.
The police force has been under investigation by the Department of Justice since 2008, and the American Civil Liberties Union has been pressing the government to finish.
“An important component of this is the police department’s relationship with the community,” Mr. Figueroa acknowledged. “There have been allegations of police brutality, especially in the Dominican and gay communities.”
The A.C.L.U. has compiled its own report listing accusations of abuse by police officers against Puerto Ricans, including the poor, students and workers.
The past 18 months have seen an increase in the number of protests by Puerto Rican workers and students against the government, which has cut 23,000 jobs and raised university tuition. The police have reacted forcefully to protesters, in some instances using tear gas, Tasers and night sticks. Several protesters have reported being beaten, the A.C.L.U. said.
“While it is nothing new that police have had carte blanche in their dealings with the low-income and immigrant community, it’s the first time it has broken through to dissidents, students and the middle class,” said Anthony D. Romero, the A.C.L.U.’s executive director.
Mr. Romero said he applauded the police department’s recent efforts to address these longstanding problems. “But until the reforms are implemented, it’s hard to know how serious the reforms are,” he said.
The worry is palpable in and around San Juan, even as far away as Ponce, that the problem is getting worse, not better. One woman, a crime victim who was too afraid to give her name, said she was still panicked by an attempted carjacking she experienced nearly three years ago, as the wave was beginning anew.
A man walked up to her Lexus as she was parked in a wealthy neighborhood and pointed a gun at her face. Her two children sat in the backseat. He tried to open her doors. Instead, she put the car in reverse and fled quickly.
She wound up running the man over without realizing it and killing him. He had had more than two dozen charges against him and had been responsible for several other carjackings that week.
With the situation not improving quickly enough, the woman has considered moving to the mainland.
But in Loíza most residents don’t have that option. They have grown fatalistic about the homicides and violence, in general, which has residents avoiding whole swaths of their own neighborhood.
“Now we leave it to God,” said Antonio Ramos García, 59, a lifelong resident who works for the local election board.
See also:
Sentencing Law and Policy: Why are murder rates so high in Puerto Rico and might criminal law be to blame?
'Don't Give Up On Us': Puerto Ricans Wrestle With High Crime : NPR
February 07, 2013 3:27 AM
The island's police superintendent, Hector Pesquera, says tackling the crime problem has been a challenge. Before he ran the police force, which is responsible for the entire island of more than 3.5 million people, Pesquera spent years leading the FBI bureau in Miami.
The picture wasn't pretty when he returned to Puerto Rico. He came home to a fleet of police cars in despair, aging equipment and officers arrested for corruption. Drug cartels, he says, were also moving their businesses to the island from Mexico.
"Plus, unfortunately, we broke the all-time record for murders [in 2011]," he says. "We had 1,136, I believe."
It's a record that Pesquera and his team are trying to combat.
"We had 186, 187 less murders, so we're slowly making a dent," he says.
...
America's Role
Pesquera says political muscle is needed to make the case to Washington, D.C., that solving the drug and crime problems here will help people on the mainland.
In many ways, Puerto Rico is America's third border, Pesquera says. Drugs that enter from Latin America can head right to the mainland without going through customs. According to Pesquera, 80 percent of the drugs that come through the island end up in cities and communities on the East Coast.
...
Puerto Rico's resident commissioner, or nonvoting member of Congress, Pedro Pierluisi, says the Department of Homeland Security will soon begin an intensive effort to curb drug violence. DHS would only confirm that it has expanded anti-drug operations in Puerto Rico and continues to deploy personnel there.
But police superintendent Pesquera says he's still not convinced that people on the mainland are paying enough attention to how dire the circumstances are in Puerto Rico.
...
Violent crime and drugs have long been issues on the island, but many Puerto Ricans say they used to feel safe as long as they weren't involved in the drug war. Now, crime feels more widespread, Romero says, affecting the poor and rich alike.
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Puerto Rico tackling fearful murder rate - 12/11/2012 | MiamiHerald.com
After coming under scathing criticism for a lackluster response to a surge in the Caribbean drug trade and the violence that accompanied it, the federal government has teamed with local law enforcement to target gangs and robbers caught with guns. The feds appear to have finally found a strategy to tamp the unprecedented murder rate, which succeeded where air patrols and cutter deployments could not: locking up the bad guys.
“You’re never going to see a headline: ‘This is how many murders were prevented,’ ” said Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s police superintendent, responsible for what is essentially an island-wide police force. By November, “175 fewer people were murdered in Puerto Rico this year. That’s an 18 percent drop. That’s huge. We’ll do another 175 next year and keep doing that until it’s at a manageable level.”
In 2011, Puerto Rico broke its own record by logging 1,135 homicides — 30 killings per 100,000 residents.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/11/v-print/3137968/puerto-rico-tackling-fearful-murder.html#storylink=cpy
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Crime in Puerto Rico
Do you live in Puerto Rico? We need your help: Add data for Puerto Rico
| Index |  |
|---|---|
| Crime Index: | 59.30 |
| Safety Index: | 40.70 |
Crime rates in Puerto Rico
| Level of crime | 72.35 | |
| Crime increasing in the past 3 years | 68.94 | |
| Worries home broken and things stolen | 56.82 | |
| Worries being mugged or robbed | 61.36 | |
| Worries car stolen | 51.89 | |
| Worries things from car stolen | 68.18 | |
| Worries attacked | 52.27 | |
| Worries being insulted | 45.08 | |
| Worries being subject to a physical attack because of your skin colour, ethnic origin or religion | 12.12 | |
| Problem people using or dealing drugs | 77.69 | |
| Problem property crimes such as vandalism and theft | 67.31 | |
| Problem violent crimes such as assault and armed robbery | 63.08 | |
| Problem corruption and bribery | 63.98 |
Safety in Puerto Rico
| Safety walking alone during daylight | 59.23 | |
| Safety walking alone during night | 25.38 |
Contributors: 67
Last update: November, 2013
These data are based on perceptions of visitors of this website in the past 2 years.
If value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if value is 100, it means it is perceived as very high.
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Anti-crime effort in Puerto Rico is paying off, officials say
SAN JUAN
(Reuters) - An anti-crime initiative that put more federal agents in Puerto Rico and boosted coordination with the U.S. mainland is making streets safer in both places, top U.S. and Puerto Rican law enforcement officials said on Thursday.
The effort, Operation Caribbean Resilience, began in July 2012 and has been expanded over the last three months in the U.S. territory.
Over the last 12 months, the operation has resulted in the arrest of more than 320 people and the seizure of more than 170 firearms, 8,000 rounds of ammunition, more than $155,000 in cash, and a wide range of drugs including cocaine, heroin, marijuana, ecstasy, Percocet, and oxycodone.
"Through our joint efforts ... we have not only made the streets of Puerto Rico much safer, but also improved security in the mainland United States," said John Sandweg, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sandweg said the operation was entering a new phase targeting drug gangs and criminal organizations responsible for violent crime in Puerto Rico.
The island's non-voting member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, hailed the operation as a success.
"Now, it is critical that we sustain and build upon the gains we have made," said Pierluisi.
The federal government is primarily responsible for securing Puerto Rico's maritime border, and plays a key role in disrupting criminal activity on the Caribbean island, he said.
Puerto Rico had a record 1,117 killings during 2011. The tally dropped to 978 killings in 2012, according to the Puerto Rico Police Department. So far this year, 648 killings were registered through September 25, compared with 719 during the same period last year.
The crime problem, along with a seven-year economic slide, is driving many Puerto Ricans to the continental United States. More Puerto Ricans live stateside than on the island.
Puerto Rico's population has been on the decline for the past several years, with U.S. Census Bureau estimating it at 3.68 million in 2012, down from 3.81 million in 2000.
The operation is a joint initiative led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit, with support from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Puerto Rico Police Department and the municipal police departments of San Juan, Ponce, and Toa Alta.
Some 30 additional Homeland Security Investigations agents were assigned to high-crime areas with links to transnational crime. The Coast Guard boosted patrols of smuggling routes around Puerto Rico. Transportation Security Administration officials increased screening efforts to intercept drugs and weapons smuggled in baggage and cargo at airports and seaports.
(Reporting by Reuters in San Juan, Editing by Jane Sutton and Mohammad Zargham)
-Fact Sheet: Fight Crime in Puerto Rico
Abstract
The Department of Homeland Security (Department of Homeland Security DHS) is working closely with stakeholders to create and maintain a unified and coordinated to support the implementation of research, data gathering intelligence, interception and other policing strategy with the aim of:
- Disrupt the illicit flow of weapons / drugs / money / migrants entering Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States, with particular attention to transnational criminal organizations
- Interrupting the flow of illicit drugs / weapons / money from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the contiguous U.S. states and Europe
- Focusing on violent gang members to bring in federal court
- Develop the capacity of law enforcement and social services at the local level:
- Address current and emerging issues relating to crime;
- Improve the capacity of the island for the treatment of addiction and existing educational programs as part of a restoration effort;
- Create outreach programs, such as law enforcement at Community level in order to inform the public and encourage individuals to support the efforts of law enforcement agencies, and
- Identify and bring to justice members of violent local gangs, criminal organizations and transnational organized crime elements.
Current efforts to enforce the law in Puerto Rico
DHS has begun a series of operations that use the existing police capacity to prevent, detect and disrupt the illegal maritime traffic in the region to combat the flow of drugs, weapons, money and migrants.
- The Air and Marine Division Caribbean (Caribbean Air and Marine Branch or CAMB) -
- A combination of six aircraft and 10 interceptor Midnight Express (fast patrol boats) used to combat drug trafficking in the area.
- In fiscal year 2011, CHANGE 10.250 pounds of confiscated narcotics and $ 2.1 million in cash.
- Border Interagency Group Caribbean (Caribbean Border Interagency Group or CBIG) -
- An alliance between the (Caribbean Air and Marine Branch) Caribbean Marine Air Division and the Customs and Border Protection United States (U.S. Customs and Border Protection or CBP), the Coast Guard of the United States (U.S. Coast Guard or USCG) The Immigration and Customs Control (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI), the Attorney General of the United States (U.S. Attorney's Office) for the District of Puerto Rico and United Forces of Rapid Action (FURA) of Puerto Rico in order to stop the flow of illegal aliens and contraband to the Caribbean.
- This effort in effect reduced illegal immigration to Puerto Rico in 80 percent
- Op-Sea Wall
- A joint operation against drugs by the USCG, CBP, Directorate for Drug Control (Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA) and the Dominican Republic Navy, directed mainly against the flow arrival areas of the southern region of Spanish and the secondary flow of the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico
- Together, these agencies conduct aerial surveillance and marine patrol, and provide forces intercept plus interception on the surface of the coast.
- Since May 2012, the Operational Sea Wall has resulted in the interception of more than 7,000 kilograms of cocaine and the arrest of 29 suspected traffickers, an increase of 300% over the previous period of 12 months.
- In September 2012, the Operational Caribbean Guard (OCG) DHS was implemented to intercept illegal weapons, drugs and money in and out of Puerto Rico. There are six separate up to support the OCG projects focused on inspecting cargo, mail, ships and people that enter and leave Puerto Rico.
- CBP currently examining airline flight operations, including mobilization of unmanned aircraft systems from stations in Florida to Puerto Rico region, to determine the most effective use of flight hours to support the efforts of the OCG.
- Unified Resolve-Operative District 7 Coast Guard U.S. is allocating additional resources and capacity to prevent, detect and disrupt the illegal maritime traffic in the region to combat the flow of drugs, weapons, money and migrants.
- Area High Intensity Drug Trafficking (High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA)
- This classification of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Office of National Drug Control) is an alliance of DHS components (CBP, ICE, USCG and USSS) that focuses on disrupting drug trafficking in Puerto Rico and around.
- When combined with the Task Force on Organized Crime Narcotics (Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Taskforce or OCDETF) Strike Force is Route Caribbean (Caribbean Corridor Strike Force), a project aimed at stopping drug trafficking organizations operating in South America, carrying cargoes and many kilos in the Caribbean.
- Operating Community Shield - a draft of ICE HSI fighting violent and organized gangs, who are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in Puerto Rico.
- Security Working Group for Border Control (Border Enforcement Security Taskforce or BEST) - Collaboration between CBP, USCG, the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF) The Police Department Puerto Rico, the Police Department San Juan, Colombia's national police, the Port Authority of Puerto Rico and the Treasury Department of Puerto Rico, dedicated to secure the border of Puerto Rico.
- Operating Centre and Marine Air Caribbean (Caribbean Air and Marine Operations Center or CAMOC) - Police surveillance radar art, used for air combat drug trafficking.
- The Coast Guard U.S. has 40 agreements with partner countries to help stop potential criminals before they reach the U.S. border.
- The Working Group of the President on the Status of Puerto Rico (President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status) - An interagency research group that produced a report with suggestions on ways to stimulate economic, social, political and security in Puerto Rico .
Data Collection and Data Intelligence
- DHS is using the 2013 Threat Assessment of the Office of National Drug Control (Office of National Drug Control Policy) HIDTA as a framework for improving the analysis of the situation in the Puerto Rico / Virgin Islands USA. The DHS is also using components capable of intelligence and criminal investigation of DHS to identify and combat smuggling activities dedicated / washing guns, drugs and money in and out of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States.
- DHS components in Puerto Rico have a strong relationship with other partners across the island chain in order to collaborate and promote the exchange of information.
- In addition, DHS is expanding its partnerships, agreements and exchange of information internationally to facilitate joint operations or response to illicit trafficking into Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States.
- DHS is working through the Coast Guard of the United States to identify and combat criminal activities and smuggling, through intelligence gathering, to support maritime interception operations in the region.
Support efforts to develop Great Local Capacity
- DHS works with the Department of Justice and other federal and local partners on the island to establish the strategy "Lost Our Neighborhood" ("Take Back our Neighborhood") for housing projects with a high crime rate in the region :
- Coordinate the efforts of local law enforcement
- Maximize visible mobilization of law enforcement / police activities over a sustained period
- Maintain a strong presence of experienced officers to improve the chances of maintaining order at the community level
- To assess the ability of Puerto Rico to expand use / flexibility OPSG and other DHS grants
- Working through the Federal Training Center Agents Act (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) with the Police Department Puerto Rico to improve the standards of training and professionalism
Continuous efforts
The DHS is dedicated to creating an interagency working group under the leadership of DHS, in charge of collecting, storing and analyzing information and intelligence from all sources on weapons, drugs and financial data. This working group, in coordination with partner agencies, multiple jurisdictions conduct research, focused on stopping the flow of drugs, money, weapons and migrants in and out of Puerto Rico.
Illegal drugs in Puerto Rico - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_drugs_in_Puerto_Rico
Jump to Crime reduction - [edit]. The Puerto Rican government has implemented a series of law enforcement operations in relation to the federal "war on ...
Anti-crime effort in Puerto Rico is paying off, officials say | Reuters
www.reuters.com/.../us-puertorico-crime-idUSBRE98P12U20130926
Sep 26, 2013 - SAN JUAN (Reuters) - An anti-crime initiative that put more federal agents in Puerto Rico and boosted coordination with the U.S. mainland is ...
Crime and Solutions for Puerto Rico
blog.panampost.com/frank.../09/.../crime-and-solutions-for-puerto-rico/
Sep 25, 2013 - Puerto Rico has already seen 646 murders this year. The island, which is about 100 miles long and 30 miles wide, has a population of 3.6 ...
Puerto Rican Crime statistics, definitions and sources. - NationMaster
www.nationmaster.com › ... › Puerto Rico
Crime statistics on Puerto Rico. 5 facts and figures, stats and information on Puerto Rican Crime. Source: World Health Organization: World report on violence ...- -
'Don't Give Up On Us': Puerto Ricans Wrestle With High Crime : NPR
Feb 7, 2013 - Puerto Rico's per capita murder rate is six times that of the U.S. as a whole. And with violence escalating, many residents are fleeing to the ...
crime in puerto rico statistics - GS
crime - GS
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