Police Officers’ Bill of Rights: free certificates, CRIM exemption and pensions

This is the law that gathered the police officer benefits scattered across laws from different decades and added more. The law itself warns the list is not closed: listing a right here does not limit recognition of any other benefit granted by law, regulation or normative letter that is not mentioned. It applies to officers of the Police Bureau — defined as personnel who directly do criminal investigation, maintain public order and protect life and property — and, depending on the right, to their spouse, their partner in a relationship of affection analogous to marriage, and their children.

Every officer of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau as Article 2(E) defines it: the public servant duly trained for law-enforcement functions under the Bureau’s regulations, including only personnel who directly perform criminal investigation, maintaining public order and protecting life and property. The tax exclusions in Article 5(D) expressly say they do not apply to the Bureau’s civilian employees. For the surviving spouse, Article 2(B) defines the term as the person to whom the officer was legally and validly married at the time of death, and extends the rights to partners in a relationship of affection analogous to marriage who were formally cohabiting at that time.

• Being an officer of the Police Bureau under the Article 2(E) definition, or being the spouse, partner in a relationship of affection analogous to marriage, surviving spouse or child, depending on the right invoked.Verified against the official source
• For the property tax exemption: the home must be the principal residence of the officer or surviving spouse and their immediate family. The law defines "home" as the building where that principal residence is established, plus the lot on which it stands.Verified against the official source

• Identification proving active police status and, for a spouse, surviving spouse or minor child, evidence of the relationship. The law says the fee-free certificates are for the officer, spouse, surviving spouse and minor children "who meet the regulation’s requirements"; that regulation belongs to each agency and is not in the law.

1. 1

   Step 1: Official certificates without paying fees

   Article 5(E)(3) is the everyday right. The officer is entitled to receive **free of fees every certificate for official use and claim of any right** from central government and municipal offices — courts, registries, bureaus and others of like nature. The law gives the list and clarifies it is not limiting: penal record certificates, tax filing certificates, income and property tax debt certificates, Registro Demográfico certificates and university transcripts, among others. The benefit extends to the spouse, surviving spouse and minor children. And there is an obligation that helps enforce it at the counter: state and municipal agencies, offices and units are ordered to keep a sign visible to the public stating those certificates shall be free, and it is the Commissioner’s duty to see that the sign is there.

2. 2

   Step 2: The $10,000 property tax exemption

   Article 5(E)(1) exempts, permanently and up to ten thousand (10,000) dollars of its assessed value for tax purposes, the home the officer or surviving spouse builds or acquires in good faith as a principal residence. If the building holds more than one dwelling, the exempt value is the proportional share the occupied dwelling bears in the total value of building and lot, as determined by CRIM’s Executive Director. Petitions are filed in the form CRIM determines and, **once approved, take effect retroactively up to a maximum of three (3) years**, subject to the Municipal Code (Act 107-2020). The law closes saying this exemption is in addition to any other the Government grants taxpayers. There is a second exemption, in subsection (2), for an incapacitated or disabled officer: the house built, acquired or remodeled by them and the lot on which it stands are exempt, up to a maximum of one thousand square meters in urban zones or one cuerda in rural ones, as long as it is their residence or their immediate family’s; it ceases when it stops being used as a home and is recoverable if they build there again or acquire another property and establish their home in it.

3. 3

   Step 3: Outside work: a right, but capped

   Article 2(F) defines outside work as any work performed by an officer on their own account, as a third party’s employee or on commission, or holding interests in a business, whether or not there is pay, service or compensation, while off duty. Article 5(A)(8) recognizes it as a right: generating additional income through outside work, performed while off duty and **never exceeding four (4) hours a day or twenty-four (24) hours a week**. The law adds that the Bureau shall issue regulations to that end; those regulations are not in the law and we do not describe them.

4. 4

   Step 4: Medical services and discounts

   Article 5(F) gives the right to receive from municipalities and the central Government, through all their health facilities, at no cost, the necessary medical assistance, treatment, hospitalization and medication upon prescription, including spouse and children up to majority, and with no age limit for physically or mentally disabled children. If the officer or family has a prepaid health plan, the public institution may bill that plan for services rendered, but must waive the deductible. These rights extend to the children of officers killed in the line of duty. And the law orders it posted visibly in all public health facilities, state and municipal. Article 5(G) holds two more benefits: preference, on equal academic, technical or experience terms, in appointments and promotions — an obligation the law extends also to private persons operating businesses in Puerto Rico; and a twenty-five percent (25%) discount off the individual rate at national park beaches, zoos, aquariums, vacation centers, camping areas and any other recreational place.

5. 5

   Step 5: What is left to the family

   Article 6 collects the rights of the surviving spouse and minor or incapacitated children. If the officer dies in the line of duty, they enjoy the privileges and exemptions this law gives the officer, for as long as the officer would have enjoyed them had they lived. Those benefits cease: for the surviving spouse, upon remarriage; for minor children, upon reaching majority; and for incapacitated children, as soon as the incapacity ends after majority. When an active member dies of a cause **not** related to service, Article 6(2) recognizes a pension of no less than one hundred twenty-five (125) dollars monthly from the Public Employees Retirement System, under Act 8 of 1976. There is also a scholarship for tuition or textbooks at any public higher education institution while the surviving spouse remains widowed, for children under twenty-one (21) and for those up to twenty-five (25) pursuing postsecondary studies, under Act 263-1998; a pension for beneficiaries or heirs of retired officers under Act 169 of 1968; and the scholarship fund for children of members who lost their lives in the line of duty under Act 111 of 1988. **Act 1-2022 compiles those rights by reference: it does not restate the requirements, amounts or procedures of those four laws, and we did not read them for this guide.**

6. 6

   Step 6: What happens if someone does not comply

   Article 8 is the part with teeth. A person violating any of these rights shall be prosecuted for a misdemeanor with a fine up to one thousand (1,000) dollars. Government corporations or agencies and individuals who obstruct or act so as to affect these rights **are liable for the damages they cause the officer, including attorney’s fees**, and the judge may award up to double the damages. Government bodies, public or quasi-public corporations and municipalities that fail to comply may be fined administratively by the Commissioner, coordinating with the DSP Secretary, up to five thousand (5,000) dollars per violation, and that money is deposited for the Bureau to implement this same law. The Commissioner is authorized to investigate and prosecute infractions and **may represent injured officers in court** for violations of this law.

7. 7

   Step 7: The portal where the benefits should be listed

   Article 3 imposes a transparency duty worth knowing because it is how an officer learns what exists. All Government bodies and institutions, including public corporations and municipal governments, must report annually, within sixty (60) days after the fiscal year ends, to the Police Commissioner and the Office of Management and Budget, on the benefits and services they offer police officers. And the Commissioner’s Office **must publish that information through a web portal**. We do not publish that portal’s address because the law does not set it.

It depends on the right, and the law splits it this way: the property tax exemption is requested before CRIM, in the form CRIM determines; fee-free certificates are requested at the same office that issues the certificate, which is where the sign must be; medical services are received at municipal and central Government health facilities; and a non-compliance claim goes to the Police Bureau Commissioner, coordinating with the DSP Secretary. What we do not publish: forms, addresses, phone numbers, processing deadlines or the benefits portal link, because Act 1-2022 does not set them; that is why processing time stays unverified.

• Paying the fee for an official certificate without invoking Article 5(E)(3): it includes penal records, tax filings, tax debts, Registro Demográfico and university transcripts.
• Believing the certificate benefit is only for the officer: the law extends it to spouse, surviving spouse and minor children.
• Not requesting the CRIM exemption because you think it is too late: once approved, the effect is retroactive up to three years.
• Exceeding four hours a day or twenty-four a week in outside work: the law sets that cap expressly.
• Doing outside work while not off duty: the law allows it only while off duty.
• Assuming the Article 5(D) tax exclusions cover the Bureau’s civilian employees: the law expressly says they do not.
• Giving up the surviving-spouse benefit for lack of a marriage: the law extends those rights to a partner in a relationship of affection analogous to marriage who was formally cohabiting at the time of death.
• Paying the deductible at a public health facility: the law waives the deductible when the institution bills the health plan.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Policía de Puerto Rico

  Policía de PR

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Police Bureau

  Policía

  www.policia.pr.gov

• Department of Public Safety (DSP)

  DSP

  www.dsp.pr.gov