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In his first duties as Police Commissioner, Colonel Antonio López Figueroa reported today that this week he will start working with the officers’ vaccination protocol and the merger of different units of the uniforms.
Both items were at the top of the agenda of López Figueroa’s meeting this morning at Hato Rey’s headquarters with the commanders of Puerto Rico’s 13 police zones.
He pointed out that the vaccination protocol will be developed in collaboration with the Minister of Health, Carlos Mellado, and General José Reyes, Assistant General of the National Guard.
“Next week they will go into phase 1B of the vaccination. A protocol will be drawn up to allow officers in every police area to be vaccinated and, if possible, protected during the (COVID-19) pandemic, ”said López Figueroa.
He assured that they will put in place some mechanism per police area so that no problems arise due to extensive lines of uniformed men, who currently have 11,463 on the payroll, although he clarified that vaccination is voluntary.
Meanwhile, the new Commissioner indicated that he spoke at the meeting about the creation of several units “to increase clarification of matters”.
He pointed out that this process involves a “restructuring of the research arm”, including the merger of some divisions “doing virtually the same thing, to streamline the processes.”
As an example, he cited the Domestic Violence, Juvenile Affairs and Sexual Offenses Departments, so that the same agent is trained to investigate these three areas.
Instead, he said he does not expect changes in the position of area commanders at this time. He noted that Lieutenant Colonel José Luciano will be the acting commander of the San Juan Police Zone for the time being, following the departure of Colonel José Juan García, who was appointed Commissioner of the capital’s municipal police.
In the meantime, he announced that he will try to pay back the accrued medical expenses in the uniformed from the following budget. He indicated that it is more cost-effective because absenteeisms on “vulnerable” data that are ultimately covered by other officials who work overtime that also have to be paid will be reduced.
For the year 2021, the commissioner already expects an academy of 225 police officers, while they will ask for a budget for a new class of 800 cadets, to counter the loss of the past years. He said an average of 400 to 500 police officers retire each year.
As an incentive to attract new recruits, López Figueroa said they will try to lower the minimum age for participation in the Police Academy to 18 and will have an associate degree upon completion of the cadets.
The recruitment of new police officers was a constant signal from the federal court, as part of the police reform.
López Figueroa assured that in his government they will be “mediators between the reform and the police”.
Under his leadership will be 10 years of the reform, which was signed in 2013, so he expected that “we will try to make enough progress to complete compliance with the terms of the agreement negotiating the government’s requirement. of the United States for civil rights violations.