The coordinator of the Technical Commission for the Restructuring of the Police Education System, historian and university professor Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben is convinced transformation of the National Police must come from within the Police. In an interview with Despierta con CDN, she spoke of advances made in this direction.
“One of the premises that we assume is that police reform must be done with the Police, not a group of wise men. I who come from the university sector am going to sit at a desk, as I write books,” she pointed out in the interview.
In this sense, she assured that there are more than 15 police officers in the technical committee that works with the police reform. She says this means the reform proposals are coming from within the Police.
The historian and university progressor explained that the change of culture within the National Police will not happen overnight. Patience is needed to implement reform, she says.
Local universities are backing the Complementary Educational Program in Human Rights and Citizen Coexistence, directed at the National Police agents, as part of the reform that the government is carrying out in this police force.
To advance in this initiative, Sang Ben assured that they have the collaboration of 14 universities from all over the country, to apply the training methodology to the agents. In addition to the implementation in public schools of the baccalaureate in security, it started with five centers this year, to be extended nationwide.
She said that the recruits are receiving a six-month training in confinement and another six months in supervised exercise.
“I have confidence in this; there are going to continue to be events, tragedies like this, because it’s not easy to change a mental structure,” explained the university professor. She was referring to the recent tragedy in Santiago when a policeman stray bullet killed an 11 year old boy bystander.
She explained the police training programs underway are aimed at 35,000 police officers. Instructors are teaching 1,400 courses, designed in 90-hour workshops, twice a week in four-hour sessions.
The program contains five modules, on personal and interpersonal skills, ethics and anti-corruption, human rights and democratic values, culture of peace and conflict management, and maintenance of public order.
The training is under the responsibility of the Complementary Educational Program, Human Rights and Citizen Coexistence, which designed the educational plan, train the facilitators, under the tutelage of Professor Aida Consuelo Hernández.
The courses are given in the provinces of Barahona, La Romana, Santiago and Santo Domingo, in the facilities of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD).
He also indicated that they have schools in Hatillo, San Cristobal, Boca Chica and the Hotel Bahia Principe with the capacity to prepare about 3,500 police per year.
The Police Reform initiative added a new milestone when the Dominican Republic Navy signed off the Boca Chica Naval Base to be converted into modern facilities by the Ministry of Interior and Police for the training of 2,000 new agents every year. The recruits will be trained in groups of 1,000 during six months at the Boca Chica Naval Base, and another six months in the field, with exhaustive supervision of their trainers.
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El Caribe
21 February 2023