When he took office in August 2012, President Danilo Medina chose to confirm police chief Mayor General Jose Armando Polanco Gomez, appointed in 2010 by his predecessor President Leonel Fernandez. The police had ended Fernandez’s 8-year long government ranked 143rd of 144 countries worldwide in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index.
Now, a recent CID-Gallup Latin America poll carried out in January 2013 in seven countries in the region shows that while the high cost of living and unemployment are the main issues in Central America, in the Dominican Republic crime is now the number one concern for citizens. Crime is mentioned as the most serious concern by 33% compared to 25% who cite unemployment. From a practically-crime free country where people used to leave their doors open, citizens in the DR now have to constantly look over their shoulders. The increase in crime is attributed to a rise in drug trafficking, widespread corruption in the government, police, military and the judiciary. Despite the rise in crime, Dominican governments have been negligent and have left security up to the private sector.
Rafael Molina Morillo, executive editor of El Dia newspaper makes the point that the CID-Gallup poll results were released on the same day that the Presidency released its new Comprehensive Citizen Safety Plan to fight crime, yesterday, Thursday 21 March. The Plan includes police reform, the implementation of an integrated 911 emergency system, a prevention program called “Live in Peace”, a motorcycle registration and control plan, a road safety system, a drug control strategy, supportive measures via the Attorney General’s office, an arms registration and control plan and an observatory for violence.
Molina Morillo comments that the government is relying heavily on the same Police, while pointing out that only five out of every 100 people trust the Police in the Dominican Republic. The poll also shows that only 6% of the people in the Dominican Republic trust politicians, and only 8% trust the judiciary or legislators.
“I don’t want to be a party pooper or rain on their parade, but the most elementary logic leads me to think that as long as we do not have a new Police that is purged, we will not be able to expect good results,” he writes in El Dia.
He says that we need a better paid Police and suggests where to get the money to achieve this: “From what is stolen by those who are corrupt, from the Congress slush funds, from what is spent on an Armed Forces that practically is good for nothing, from the unnecessary ministries such as Youth and Women, from making more efficient the foreign service, from the supposed social assistance plans, from part of the institutions…”
Diario Libre reports today, Friday 22 March that the 2,000 new agents assigned to the new Citizen Safety Program were sent to patrol interior towns and many complained that they had not received the per diems or the incentives they were promised by the authorities. The agents were posted to patrol in the National District and the provinces of Santo Domingo, Santiago, San Cristobal and La Altagracia. Many told Diario Libre reporters that they were sent to their new postings without enough cash for a bottle of water or for their families, when they do not know when they will return.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2013/03/22/i376358_policias-van-provincias-muchos-estan-disgustados.html
www.cidgallup.com/Documentos/LOS%20PROBLEMAS%20ECONOMICOS%20DOMINAN.pdf
www.weforum.org/issues/global-competitiveness
http://eldia.com.do/los-buenos-dias-de-molina-morillo/2013/3/21/110005/Cosas-que-nunca-se-han-hecho