Mixed patrols with troops aren’t scarecrows: Police Chief

Santo Domingo.- National Police chief Jose Polanco on Tuesday called mixed patrols with the military effective, and noted as example the confiscation of four assault rifles and several grenades from two men in Santiago, one of them deported by the United States, where he served a 15-year sentence.

He refuted statements by Ramon Cruz, head of the neighborhood board of the sprawling barrio La Fe, who called the military-police street patrols "scarecrows" that don’t do the job.

Although Polanco said the confiscation of those weapons isn’t about “scarecrows,” he declined providing details on the case. "If that’s being a scarecrow when I was a boy in my town, birds weren’t scared with grenades and rifles."

Nonetheless the Police Chief said he respects Cruz’s view and vowed to visit La Fe to discuss issues related to that barrio.