USAID, National Police launch strategic safety program

Santo Domingo.- The Police on Monday launched a strategic planning program in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to train 26 colonels and captains and more than 30 non-commissioned officers in a first phase, aimed at improving its management capacity and bolter the safety program carried out nationwide.

In a Police headquarters ceremony USAID deputy director Jim Wright said the program is part of the Caribbean Force Security Initiative created during the Summit of Heads of State of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago in April 2009.

He said a survey by Barometer of the Americas at yearend 2012 found that 25 percent of Dominicans polled said they were robbery victims that year and that 49 percent of those living in Dominican neighborhoods say gangs affect them, the highest of any country, followed by Honduras, with only 29 percent.

Citing the survey, Wright said 41 percent of the crimes reported from 2005 to 2012 were related to drugs.

He also noted that despite their situation Dominicans have accomplished much in recent months and that the government and civil society have worked hard to reform the criminal justice system, with the USAID’s support.