“Mafia dominated” Police needs reform now, leading lawyer says

Santo Domingo.- Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) director on Monday urged president Leonel Fernandez to moor a true reform of the National Police because in his it’s currently “dominated by a structure of mafias.”

Serbio Tulio Castaños Guzmán said now is the best time to undertake that reform because in his view Police chief Jose A. Polanco is a “excellent manager” who knows what needs to be done to clean up that institution. “Polanco is the Police Chief who has confronted all that shamelessness. He needs support. He needs a President’s support to reform the Police. He’s an excellent manager.”

The Finjus executive said in its current condition “the Police is a monster which devours the State” for which its reform is urgently needed now to transform it into a progressive institution.

Interviewed by Pablo McKinney on CDN channel 37, Castaños said a reform should be based on a draft by a commission of jurists and not the one sent to Congress which guarantees the permanence of its more than 20 generals.

He said modern Police forces don’t have generals and instead superintendents, citing the case of United States and Colombian cities.

As to the thousands of agents reportedly doing particular services, Castaños said “the 30,000 police whom the private sector and the political class have…those gentlemen want to provide a particular solution to their problems, when the solution is collective.”

He said it’s not possible for a 32,000 member police force to have 40 generals, because in his view, if it must there can be only one general, the Chief.

He compared the Police to a traffic jam, where it’s impossible to exert control and warned that what occurred in Colombia and now in Mexico can happen here; that the very police, who attended the children of the rich, and later kidnapped them as part of a criminal activity. “Anyone who has three pesos can have a policeman, with what right?”