Mandatory police course on sexual assault

It is a short Act — five sections in two pages — and it does one thing: it makes compulsory, within the training of whoever enters the Police Academy, a course on how a victim of sexual assault should be attended. The most useful thing to know is its exact reach, because it is easy to read too much into it. It speaks of the candidates entering the Academy. It does not order retraining of officers already on the force, it does not describe the protocol, it creates no consequence for an officer who does not follow it and it gives the victim no complaint procedure. We say this up front so nobody arrives expecting from this Act something it does not contain.

There is nothing to apply for here and nobody to qualify: the Act imposes a curricular requirement, not a benefit. Its direct addressees are “the candidates entering the Police Academy,” and those bound by it are the Rector of the Puerto Rico University College of Criminal Justice and, in coordination with him, the Rape Victims Assistance Centre attached to the Department of Health. For a victim, this Act’s interest is different: it tells them a compulsory course on the attention protocol exists, with a named person responsible.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: What the Act orders, in one line

   Section 1 is the whole Act as far as the obligation goes: “It is provided that, as part of the training received by the candidates entering the Police Academy, a training course on the proper protocol to follow when attending victims of sexual assault be included as a compulsory requirement.” The two words carrying the weight are “compulsory requirement”: the course is neither elective nor optional within entry training.

2. 2

   Step 2: Whom it reaches, and whom it does not

   This is where it pays to be exact. The Act speaks of “the candidates entering the Police Academy.” It contains no provision ordering retraining of officers already on the force when it was approved, in December 2009. The contrast helps: another act in the same series, Act 34-2011 on conflict mediation, did expressly order the Superintendent to establish a plan for personnel already in uniform to be retrained, with a term of a year and a half. Act 184-2009 carries nothing equivalent. So if you were attended by a long-serving officer, this Act is not the source of their training on this subject.

3. 3

   Step 3: Who is responsible, and why it matters who accompanies them

   Section 2 places the regulation in the hands of the Rector of the Puerto Rico University College of Criminal Justice, who “shall adopt the necessary regulations to establish, among other things, all the rules and standards relating to the effective achievement of this Act.” And Section 3 adds the detail that says most about the Act’s intent: the Rector, “in coordination with the Rape Victims Assistance Centre, attached to the Department of Health, shall be responsible for compliance with Sections 1 and 2.” That is, the content was not left to the Police on their own: the Act put the victim-services centre inside the compliance chain.

4. 4

   Step 4: The deadline the Act set, and what we cannot confirm

   Section 4 grants the Rector “a term of sixty (60) days from the approval of this Act, for the drafting and adoption of the corresponding regulations.” The Act was approved on 17 December 2009, so that window closed in early 2010. We did not read those regulations and cannot confirm from this source whether they were ever adopted. We say so as it stands: we assert neither that the course is running nor that it is not. What is firm is the statutory mandate.

5. 5

   Step 5: A note on the institution the Act names

   Worth keeping in mind if you are going to ask about the course. The Act assigns the work to the Rector of the Puerto Rico University College of Criminal Justice. In the compilation of a sibling act in the same series — Act 34-2011, cited to the same chapter of 25 L.P.R.A. — OGP adds a bracketed note indicating that that entity was substituted by the Programme for the Professionalisation of the Police of Puerto Rico, under Act 112-2014. This Act’s compilation carries no such note. We report the institution as this Act names it and flag that the sibling act’s compilation records a substitution; we did not read Act 112-2014 and do not assert what effect it had on this assignment.

6. 6

   Step 6: Why it was passed, according to the Act itself

   The statement of motives gives the context and carries a figure we quote with its source exactly as the Act presents it: “According to Department of Health statistics, it is estimated that in 2007 approximately 54,000 cases of sexual assault occurred.” And it adds the reason the training matters: “this type of offence is among the least reported, with multiple factors dissuading victims from doing so.” It is a 2007 estimate cited in a 2009 act; we publish it as what it is, the figure the Legislature invoked, not as a current statistic.

7. 7

   Step 7: What this Act does not give you

   Said bluntly, because a victim arriving in search of a remedy deserves to know quickly. This Act does not describe the protocol, so you cannot measure against it what an officer did or failed to do. It sets no consequence, sanction or disciplinary measure for whoever does not follow it. It creates no complaint, forum or remedy for the victim. It sets no duration or minimum content for the course. And it requires no report on compliance. It is, in its own terms, a curriculum mandate. If what you are looking for is to file a complaint about an officer’s conduct, that route lives elsewhere and this library covers it in a separate guide.

There is nothing to file under this Act: it creates no procedure for the citizen. The responsible parties it names are the Rector of the Puerto Rico University College of Criminal Justice and the Rape Victims Assistance Centre, attached to the Department of Health, which coordinate compliance with the course. The Act publishes no address, telephone, hours or form for either, and we do not invent them.

• Believing the Act retrained the whole force: it reaches candidates entering the Academy, not officers already in service.
• Looking in this Act for the protocol: the Act orders the course but does not describe the protocol or set its content.
• Expecting a sanction for an officer who does not follow it: the Act creates no consequence or disciplinary measure.
• Thinking it creates a complaint for the victim: it creates no complaint, forum or remedy.
• Assuming the Police write the course on their own: Section 3 puts the Rape Victims Assistance Centre in the compliance chain.
• Taking it for granted that the course exists today: the sixty-day regulation term closed in 2010 and we did not read those regulations.
• Citing the 54,000 cases as a current figure: it is a 2007 estimate recorded in the statement of motives of a 2009 act.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Policía de Puerto Rico

  Policía de PR

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov