Onesimo Gonzalez is happy about the merge of the National Police transit agents with the organization he directs. He says it is not an improvised move; it had been on the table for four months. Hamlet Hermann, first director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET) urges caution, though. He says there are problems because AMET and AMETRASAN operate only in Santo Domingo and Santiago and the national police has national jurisdiction. Gonzalez explains the idea is to integrate the National Police agents as members of the Policia Metropolitana de Transporte that was created in 1998 and has 600 agents in Santo Domingo and Santiago. Hermann urged that in the merge the regulations of AMET for recruiting agents be respected. To be an Amet agent one has to be 20-35 years of age, have a minimum high school degree, comply with set height and weight specifications, have a psychological profile to deal with people, athletic look, and comply with a series of ethical and moral conditions set so that Amet police are efficient in their work. This has worked, and Amet policemen, have won the respect of the population. Amet policemen are paid upwards of RD$5,000, which is double what a National Police transit agent was paid. As a result, Amet policemen were known to not be corrupt, which can not be said for their National Police colleagues. Hermann says he agrees with the merge, but urses that Amet be given an adequate budget and that it not be a mechanical transfer, rather that agents be subject to the same requirements demanded of Amet agents. He cautioned that if the police are not pre-selected, then Amet will be contaminated. Interestingly, today chief of the Police, Mayor General Pedro de Jesus Candelier was in charge of recruiting the first AMET agents when he was deputy director of that organization. As per a recent presidential decree, the National Police and the AMET will work together for the merge.
