Genesis and Evolution of The Police Reformation
 
Thursday 13 of December of the 2001,

San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic

DR. MANUEL DE JS. PEREZ SANCHEZ.

Gentlemen
Honorable's member of the directive table
Civilian authorities and military,
Citizen and citizen presents
Friends all

Genesis

History overcomes us to the Caribbean inhabited by siboneyes, ciguayos, macorixes, Caribbean and tainos, that had arrived coming from the South American continent, three thousand years before the Spaniards.

In the Island of Santo Domingo, when the conquest takes place, a political organization with five kingdoms or chieftainships in each one existed of which she governed a sovereign, who controlled other demarcations and their governors as well.

Behique, a species of civil employee taíno, that exerted its authority in religious matter and of health, also had to its position the rudimentary judicial administration of the time, deciding what was correct or incorrect, according to its uses and customs.

When settling down the Indian right in our territory, to a series of norms and special rules are applied, that basically transfer to this hemisphere effective the judicial and police system in Spain.

The creation of the Dominican State, in a year 1844, comes preceded from an occupation of 22 years on the part of Haiti, that imposed its codes and Napoleonic laws; as well as its judicial and police system.

He is not idle to remember that the French organized a police force from century XIV with the purpose of imposing the order, of civilizing and of organizing.

In 1845 we adopted the French laws directly, to translate them and to adapt them to the national reality in 1884, including the system of the fusion or identity between governmental or administrative police and judicial police.

The character of that police was policeman, depended on the city councils and local governments, therefore unit of doctrine, of procedures, being in serious limitantes for the effective prevention and control of the crime lacked control unit.

At the end of the decade of years 20 the process begins to nationalize the police, that culminates with the reunification of the diverse police bodies in one denominated national police.

At the moment, the police administration, at universal level, is being object of an intense examination, reflection and experimentation, tie to the best strategy to govern it and to satisfy the services of security.

They prefer the professional bureaucratic model, that points at the effectiveness and diminution of the crimes; others consider that the communitarian monitoring and the oriented police activities to the problems of the community are the best way to increase the security.

The new economic, political and social dynamics of the Nation implies I journey towards the administrative decentralization, transparency of the public management, surrender of accounts, service and protection to the citizenship, respect to the individual rights, among other characteristics.

At level of the Latin American region, we are immersed in a process of state reconstruction, from the reformulation of the judicial power, that journeys by diverse ways with the unique purpose to deepen the democracy, that is only considered consolidated in the electoral heading - and many lagoons are observed still there -.

The necessity to produce greater amount of consumer goods has forced the reform of the police bodies, to allow the deprived investment, to stimulate the economic growth, to fight against the poverty, ignorance, insalubrities and illiteracy.

Nevertheless, also it grows the violence and the fear to the insecurity in all the region, detonating of new reformulations to adapt the security system, integrated by sub component justice, police and jail.

The remedies that consider go from the militarization of the police functions, the hardening of the pains, to establish the capital punishment, to the route that we considered more efficient: the fortification of the institutions of the democracy.

Some have gotten to raise the effectiveness of the dictatorships as far as the police control, forgetting that in those systems the violence is centralized in the State and in democracy it comes such from citizen; being therefore essential that the eight million inhabitants of the country contribute to the prevention and control of the delinquency.

Clearly it is drawn up by history and the economic development the map course that is to follow the reform police:

The basic mission of the police is to prevent the delinquency and the disturbances, instead of which the force or the severity of the legal punishment is repressed by

The capacity to carry out the task depends on that their existence, actions and behaviors receive the public approval and on its ability obtaining and conserving the respect and cooperation of the public to obey the law

In the measurement in which the public cooperates the necessity diminishes to use the force

To look for the please public one is not to please the public opinion, but to demonstrate absolute impartiality to the law, independent of the policy, not to adopt value judgments on the justice or not of the law, to offer service and personal friendship to all, without discrimination

To only use the force when the persuasion, the advice and the warnings are ineffective to obtain the public cooperation in the observance of the law

To conserve always good relation with the public, demonstrating with actions that are interested in the well-being of each citizen and the community.

Nor remotely to give the idea that functions of the judicial power or another organism of the State are usurped

To recognize that the test of the police effectiveness is the absence of crimes and disorders and does not demonstrate it visible of driving of the police when facing them.

However, the Dominican society must continue advancing by the way of the systematization and production of data such as criminality index; index of solution of crimes; recidivism index; index of fear to the crime and other data that the effective system does not offer.

In interring, the reform must aim at traditional strategies:

-Patrol without route fixes
-Permanent Police in the district
-Diligence in answer
-Importance of the telephone calls of the citizens. Its graduation by urgencies
-To fortify the criminal investigation
-To equip and to modernize collection and communication, transport means/processing of
evidences of the crime.
-To respect the due process
-Responsibility of the police personnel and effectiveness of its administrative practice.
-Participation of the public

Thank you very much.

 >>Loyalty, Effectiveness, Integrity.