The recently appointed Chief of Police, Manuel Castro Castillo, favored the expansion of the sentences ordered in the modification of the Code for Minors. Taking part in a Te Deum Mass for his term as police chief, he said that in some way the higher sentences will serve to dissuade criminal action and lower the crime rate. Talking to reporters from the Nuevo Diario, he said: “There is agreement that stiffer sentences serve to dissuade criminal activity, and this will lower the crime rate in the Dominican Republic.” When he was asked about the reforms to the Organic Law on the National Police, Castro Castillo said that next Tuesday they would be meeting with a commission appointed by President Medina to study the case.