The National Police faces a credibility crisis due to the increase in the number of citizens killed by the bullets of their agents. In the most recent case, 11 police officers shot down five people last month at the entrance to a shopping plaza in La Barranquita, in Santiago.
Faced with these facts, the institution has appealed to the individual responsibility of his agents and chooses not provide information about operations that were directed from within and that ended in tragic outcomes.
The Minister of the Interior and Police, Faride Rafulassured today that she herself would like to know the circumstances that led to the Santiago massacre and that she is also waiting for the results of the investigations. research.
These investigations have revealed a sequence of events that refutes the National Police in his version of a legitimate exchange of shots, as advanced by the director of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Wilson Camacho.
“That is what we want the justice system and the Public Ministry to determine, and from the first moment we are collaborating in everything that has been requested of us, giving instructions to the Police National, because those most interested in clarifying this situation in this operation that took place is precisely the Ministry of the Interior and Policeand the Dominican Government,” said the official.
This and others 227 deaths that occurred in similar circumstances were allegedly investigatedbut the reports with the conclusions never come to light, except for media cases.
“Each of these cases undergoes the same process as the law says, just as if it were an ordinary citizen. It is processed, responsibilities are established and sent to the Public Ministry (…) We immediately carry out the local procedure to make the submission. We are not hiding anything at all,” said Raful.
While the authorities they detach themselves from the increasing statistics of deaths at the hands of the police, they try to sell the advances of the police reform.
The number of deaths due to “police action” went from 77 in 2021to 139 in 2022, another 178 in 2023 and 227 in 2024. Comparing 2021 with 2024 shows an increase of 195%.
The government responds to the reality of these statistics with a repetitive speech:
“We are doing a permanent effort to control the approach towards citizens in a respectful manner, so that intelligence and investigation work is carried out in compliance with the due process“Raful said at the press conference on citizen security issues this Monday.
In this way, the increase in police lethality remains without an official explanation and raises suspicions about whether this is part of the security strategy citizen.
The Minister of the Interior was questioned by journalists at noon on Monday after the president’s weekly meeting with the heads of state security agencies ended.
– What is the number of people who have died at the hands of law enforcement so far, the accumulated number for the year, and why the impossibility of obtaining the results of these investigations?
I didn’t know it was impossible to get the results. Each of these situations, which, as you know, are also part of what we evaluate here. I don’t have it on hand, I don’t know if it’s disaggregated and the kids can take it out, I don’t know.
But each of those cases that occur motivated or the person involved is a law enforcement officer from any of the agencies, suffers the same process as the law says, just as if they were an ordinary citizen. And they are processed, responsibilities are established and they are sent to the Public Ministry that carries out the local investigations and the justice system is the one who has to carry out the final sentence.
– But the families are waiting for the results to specify why and under what circumstances the deaths occurred.
That would have to be asked of the Public Ministry and the Dominican justice system, because those are the processes that are carried out. We immediately do the local procedure to make the submission. We are not hiding anything at all.
– By whose orders did those six police officers leave here, from the Palace (of the Police) to Santiago to get together with five others and then kill five people?
That is what we want the justice system and the Public Ministry to determine. And from the first moment we are collaborating with the Public Ministry, as we said here, in everything that has been requested of us, giving instructions to the Police National for these purposes, which is collaborating.
