Alerts on digital billboards: a 72-hour minimum on screen

It is the rule that decides how long a missing person’s face stays on the island’s digital billboards. Before, the law set no term. Since Act 177-2026 there is a seventy-two hour minimum, and taking it down earlier is a Police decision, not the billboard company’s.

Anyone with an interest in an activated alert staying visible: relatives of a missing person, and also the outdoor advertising companies on whom the law places the duty. The law creates no citizen procedure: each alert’s activation is governed by its own statute.

• That the alert be activated. The law sets the term “when the alerts cited above are activated”; how each is activated is set by its own statute, which we did not read here.Verified against the official source
• That the Police of Puerto Rico make the request. The article says that, at the Police’s request, those who own digital advertising boards shall provide a specific space, identified and selected by the Police.Verified against the official source
• That the Police Commissioner provide the artwork. The law places that duty on the Commissioner, not on the billboard company or on the family.Verified against the official source

• The law asks the citizen for no documents and publishes no form: it places duties on the Police and on digital board owners. What it does name is the artwork the Commissioner must provide and the notification system the Police must establish.

1. 1

   Step 1: The seventy-two hours, and their only exception

   The text is short and worth quoting whole: “When the alerts cited above are activated, those ads shall stay up for a minimum term of seventy-two (72) hours, within the regular ad rotation cycle with fixed appearances during the daily operating span, unless the Police of Puerto Rico request their deactivation before that term.” Two things matter there. It is a minimum, not a maximum. And the only way it comes down earlier is if the Police themselves ask.

2. 2

   Step 2: It is not “when there is space”: it is fixed rotation

   The law does not settle for the ad merely existing somewhere in the system. It says it shall stay within the regular ad rotation cycle, with fixed appearances during the daily operating span. That is, it enters the billboard’s normal rotation and appears on a fixed basis during the hours that billboard operates.

3. 3

   Step 3: What gets published: the eight cases the law lists

   It shall be the duty of the Police Commissioner of Puerto Rico to provide the artwork to be used for disseminating the information in these cases: sketches and information on wanted criminals; Amber Alert; Silver Alert; Mayra Elías Alert; Rosa Alert; Ashanti Alert; emergency situations; and Police contact information and number.

4. 4

   Step 4: What each alert is, per this law and no more

   The statement of motives describes each in one line, and that is all we quote because we did not read the statutes creating them: the Amber Alert, on the disappearance of minors; the Silver Alert, for the disappearance of people with Alzheimer’s or dementia; the Mayra Elías Alert, on the whereabouts of a hit-and-run driver who caused serious bodily harm; the Ashanti Alert, for the disappearance of people aged eighteen (18) or over who may be understood to be missing or kidnapped or who suffer a physical or mental disability; and the Rosa Alert, which establishes the protocol for the disappearance of a woman aged 18 or over. PRFácil has its own guides for Amber, Silver and Mayra Elías; not yet for Rosa and Ashanti, and we will not describe them beyond this line.

5. 5

   Step 5: Who says when to take it down

   This matters if you ever see an alert vanish from a billboard early. The Police of Puerto Rico must establish a notification system for the billboard-owning companies. That system must allow sending the artwork to be programmed during the advertising cycle and the start date, and, once the alert situation ceases, the Police must immediately notify the billboard owners for the ad’s removal. Removal is ordered by the Police.

6. 6

   Step 6: The company cannot claim it breaks a contract

   The law closes that door expressly, and it helps to know if someone tells you they cannot run the alert because the space is sold: outdoor advertising companies in Puerto Rico covered by this article shall have a commercial liability exemption, under which any alteration to advertising contracts caused by mandatory compliance with these alerts shall not be considered a contractual breach by the company.

7. 7

   Step 7: The public-service space that already existed

   This is the part of Article 27 that predates this Act and that almost nobody knows. Those engaged in installing ads shall provide space for public-service ads on a scale: from one (1) to thirty (30) spaces, one (1) public-service space; from thirty-one (31) to one hundred (100), two (2); from one hundred one (101) to one hundred fifty (150), three (3); from one hundred fifty-one (151) to two hundred (200), four (4); and two hundred (200) or more, five (5). In addition, all shall annually certify to the Permit Management Office the number of spaces they have available and the number they made available for public-service ads.

There is no application to make: each alert’s activation is governed by its own statute and the request to the billboards is made by the Police of Puerto Rico. The annual certification of public-service spaces is filed with the Permit Management Office. The law publishes no address, phone or portal, and creates no complaint procedure.

• Believing the 72 hours are a maximum: the law sets them as a minimum term.
• Thinking the billboard company decides when to take it down: the only exception to the minimum is the Police of Puerto Rico requesting deactivation.
• Accepting that it runs “when there is space”: the law requires fixed appearances during the daily operating span and within the regular rotation cycle.
• Assuming the artwork is prepared by the family or the company: it is the Police Commissioner’s duty to provide it.
• Believing a sold advertising contract prevents running the alert: the law exempts the company from commercial liability for that alteration.
• Looking in this law for how an alert is activated: that is in each alert’s own statute, not here.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Policía de Puerto Rico

  Policía de PR

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov