Adopt a police station or fire station

If your community, your business or your church ever looked at the neighbourhood station thinking “we could fix this ourselves in a weekend,” this Act is the legal frame for doing it without improvising. It creates the “Adopt a Station” programme, which allows signing a formal agreement with the Police Bureau or the Fire Bureau to take on the cleaning, maintenance, refurbishing and even remodelling of a facility, including its green areas. Two details that surprise: the list of who may adopt expressly includes “families and individuals,” and the commitment is not a weekend but a minimum of three years.

Article 3 opens the door wider than people assume and organises adopters into three groups. First: “The business sector, universities, shopping centres and banking, among others.” Second: “Communities in general, non-profit organisations, civic organisations, student organisations, foundations, families and individuals” — note the last two words: a family or a single person may adopt. Third: “Municipalities, government agencies and public corporations.” The Act requires no minimum size, budget or legal personality. What it does mention, in Article 6, is that the Bureau’s guidelines will include “the presentation of penal-record certificates by the adopters.”

• Belong to one of the Article 3 groups: the business sector, universities, shopping centres and banking; communities, non-profit, civic or student organisations, foundations, families and individuals; or municipalities, government agencies and public corporations.Verified against the official source
• Enter a formal agreement with the Police Bureau or the Fire Corps Bureau, as applicable, for a period of not less than three (3) years.Verified against the official source
• Develop a work plan for the activities, which must be approved by the Bureau officer in charge of the station.Verified against the official source
• In cases of remodelling, prepare and submit the designs of the works for approval by the Commissioner of the relevant Bureau or their delegated representative.Verified against the official source
• Fully comply with Act 1-2012, the Government Ethics Act, in every agreement entered under this Act.Verified against the official source

• Penal-record certificate for the adopters, per the guidelines the Bureau must establish under Article 6.
• Work plan for the cleaning, remodelling, refurbishing, maintenance and beautification activities, including the green areas.
• In the case of remodelling, the designs of the works.

1. 1

   Step 1: First: it is for police stations and fire stations alike

   Worth knowing because the Act’s short name misleads. The programme covers both a station of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau and a station of the Puerto Rico Fire Corps Bureau, and the articles repeat that double mention throughout. Both bureaus sit under the Department of Public Safety, which the Act expressly involves in promoting the programme. So if what you want to adopt is your town’s fire station, the Act covers you just the same.

2. 2

   Step 2: Check whether you are on the list of who may adopt

   Article 3 organises it into three groups and more people qualify than realise it. Group one: “The business sector, universities, shopping centres and banking, among others.” Group two: “Communities in general, non-profit organisations, civic organisations, student organisations, foundations, families and individuals.” Group three: “Municipalities, government agencies and public corporations.” That “families and individuals” is written there matters: you need not be a corporation or a constituted organisation to adopt under this Act.

3. 3

   Step 3: The commitment is three years, not one Saturday

   It is the condition most worth thinking through before signing. Article 4: “The adoption of a station of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau or of a fire station of the Puerto Rico Fire Corps Bureau shall be by formal agreement. The term shall be for a period of not less than three (3) years, with subsequent renewals for the same period.” Three years is the floor, and renewals run for the same period. It adds that the agreements “must comply with the provisions established in Act No. 57 of 19 June 1958, as amended, which authorises the Governor and agency heads to accept, use and administer donations.”

4. 4

   Step 4: What falls to you: the adopter’s four duties

   Article 5 numbers them. The first is to adopt for the Article 4 term. The second is the work itself: “Carry out the cleaning, remodelling, refurbishing, maintenance and beautification activities of the adopted station, including its green areas.” The third is the paperwork that makes the rest possible: “Develop a work plan for the activities … That work plan must be approved by the Bureau officer … in charge of the said station.” The fourth applies only if you will remodel: “must prepare and submit the designs of the works for the approval of the Commissioner” of the relevant Bureau or their delegated representative. Note the ladder: the work plan is approved by the officer in charge of that facility; remodelling designs go up to the Commissioner.

5. 5

   Step 5: What falls to the Government, which is what you can demand

   Article 6 places eight duties on the Bureau to which the facility is attached, and they are worth knowing because they are your leverage. One: the Department of Public Safety and the Bureau “shall publish on each of their web portals and jointly in a newspaper of general circulation a promotional announcement about the programme,” with “a list by municipality that will include the address of the different police stations and the different fire stations.” Two: establish the guidelines with the requirements, “including the presentation of penal-record certificates by the adopters.” Three: draft and approve the formal agreements. Four: install signs at the entrances “with the programme logo and the name of the group or corporation in charge.” Five: provide the material for solid-waste collection. Six: remove hazardous solid waste and scrap. Seven: hold safety orientation meetings. Eight: inform the public about the programme and the facilities adopted.

6. 6

   Step 6: The ethics clause, which here is not decorative

   Article 7 is one line but worth taking seriously, because the programme channels private money and labour toward a government facility: “Every agreement made under this legislation must fully comply with the provisions of Act 1-2012, as amended, known as the ‘Government Ethics Act.’” If the adopter is a company that also contracts with the Government or is subject to that same agency’s oversight, that is exactly the scenario the clause has in mind. We do not interpret the Ethics Act; we only note that Act 224-2018 expressly incorporates it.

7. 7

   Step 7: Where the list of stations should be published

   It is the practical fact most needed at the start, and the Act orders it published, though it gives no address. Article 6(1) requires the promotional announcement to contain “a list by municipality that will include the address of the different police stations and the different fire stations in the municipalities of Puerto Rico,” and that it be published on the web portals of the Department of Public Safety and of the Bureau, and jointly in a newspaper of general circulation. Look for it there. The Act gives no internet address and we do not guess government addresses.

The formal agreement is entered with the Puerto Rico Police Bureau or the Puerto Rico Fire Corps Bureau, depending on which the facility belongs to; both under the Department of Public Safety. The work plan is approved by the Bureau officer in charge of that station; remodelling designs, by the Bureau Commissioner or their delegated representative. The guidelines with the requirements are established by the Bureau itself under Article 6. The Act publishes no form, office, address, telephone or internet address, and we do not invent them.

• Believing you must be a company: Article 3 expressly names families and individuals among those who may adopt.
• Thinking it is only for police stations: the Act equally covers Fire Corps Bureau stations.
• Planning it as a one-day activity: the agreement’s minimum term is three years, renewable for the same period.
• Starting work without an approved plan: the work plan must be approved by the Bureau officer in charge of the facility.
• Remodelling without submitting designs: in remodelling cases the designs go up to the Bureau Commissioner or their delegate.
• Forgetting the green areas: Article 5(2) expressly includes them in the adopter’s work.
• Assuming the Government contributes nothing: Article 6 places eight duties on it, including the signs, the collection material and hazardous-waste removal.
• Overlooking the ethics clause: every agreement must fully comply with Act 1-2012.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Puerto Rico (DSP)

  DSP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov