Excellent Tuesday Morning Meeting today.....long but really good.In attendance, Capitan Arauz (Boquete Police),El Alcalde de Boquete y El Ministro de Seguridad de Panama Rodolfo Aguilera.
Paul L filmed the meeting and it will be posted eventually.
It seems to me that this is a Mayor who is committted to not only the security and efficiency but also the beauty of Boquete.He underscored that he wants to work with all Boquetians, his office is open to all suggestions and help ( the new fundacion for the Beautification of Boquete is up and running - Michelle Brewer the head of that if you want to contact her).
The Alcalde also wants to make his appearances at the meetings a monthly occurance. Capt Juan Arauz (Boquete police) is committed to making Boquete a safer place and says that in 3 months they have already changed practices and procedures for the better.
The appearance today of the Minister for Security of Panama is a milestone.Not only is he a Chiricano but an educated man (Colombia and the UK ), a lawyer with 25 years exp and dedicated to reducing the plague of crime in Panama. Of course he is also a politician so he came armed with lots of graphs and pretty stats showing that their (GOVT) strategy was making inroads. My take is that this guy is a straight shooter,not a poser and while we have him on our side, we should use that.His office contact details will also be posted. The meeting was filmed by Paul Logan (muchas gracias) and will be posted eventually.
Thanks all.
Replies
Justice & Crime Fighting is a Myth people -- "Don't mean to be totally negative" but its all, pie in the sky No Money, No Real Plan, and Yacky Yack ! ( TALK THE TALK or WALK THE WALK )
OK - Do the math .. check it out ..
Go down to the Police Station and say " There is a crime taking place right now or you want to report a crime .. Then tell them in detail what you saw & provide documentation to authenticate the facts a long with your statement --- See What happens next.
or
Better yet: Go down to the D.A. office in David, file a Criminal Complaint ... Have your lawyer with you submit your complaint with all the facts a long with the witnesses statements. What happens next ? ... I will be happy to video tape the process because seeing is believing ( THE ONLY JUSTICE SYSTEM HERE - IS WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF OR HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET JUSTICE/SATISFACTION ) Ask the Panamanians how they get JUSTICE or ask the CHINESE how they handle crimes against their families, robberies and home invasions. ( ASK !!! )
How long would it take to start an investigation on a crime that happened today in Boquete ? ( ASK !!! )
I have two criminal cases in the system for months... NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE YET. NO FOLLOWUP ON MY STATEMENTS OR HAS THERE BEEN ANY TYPE OF OF INVESTIGATION INTO STOLEN PROPERTY AND MONEY !!!!
More details of the meeting yesterday - sent out via Noticias - sorry for the weird spacing ...happens sometimes if I pick things up from the internet.
October 27, 2015 - BCP Theater, Boquete Panama - Tuesday morning saw a much anticipated presentation by the new Minister of Security for Panama, Rodolfo Aguilera, in addition to Mayor of Boquete Emigdio Walker Vasquez and popular chief of police, Juan Arauz.
This follows a meeting on Monday in David, where President Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez participated on a panel to discuss revising the plans and programs for security in this region of the country. https://www.presidencia.gob.pa/Noticias/Varela-Rodriguez-revisa-pla...
Rodolfo Aguilera presented a huge amount of very detailed information, of which I will summarize only a small fraction. The meeting was videotaped and I would recommend it to anyone interested.
First, let me say that looking at the people on stage, the Mayor, police chief, Rodolfo and his American/Panamanian assistant, I got the very strong feeling that we are seeing a new breed of well educated, modern technocrats moving into positions of authority in Panama.
Rodolfo presented for more than an hour, supported by volumes of detailed powerpoint slides, discussing types of crimes, trends by type, by province, even compared to other countries in Central America and the world. His comments pulled no punches and his answers to questions were forthright and direct. Here are some of the highlights from my notes:
On the Panamanian criminal justice system
Panama spends about $1 billion on criminal justice every year. And yet, it takes one year to investigate a crime, three years to bring it to trial and then 95% of the cases are dropped or found not guilty. Of those convicted and sent to prison, 65% return to a life of crime after release. The entire prosecutorial system needs an overhaul.
Since Varela has taken office, new crime initiatives have reduced the gang murder and violence rates by 50% in one year, primarily in Panama and Colon provinces. After peaking in 2007, crime held fairly steady, and is now decreasing across the board, with the exception of domestic violence, for which new GPS bracelets are being introduced to keep offenders away from their victims.
On Gangs
With the broken prosecutorial system, they realized that a new approach to crime reduction was needed - prevention. This comes in the form of co-opting the gangs, offering them alternatives. He said that gang members know that staying in the gangs means death by age 25 and most are actually eager to get out. This approach has been used successfully in New York City and other countries. Panama is modeling its program after those successes.
The program involves four steps, briefly:
So far more than 4,000 gang members have been recruited, mainly in Panama City and Colon. Both places have seen marked drops in murder and violence. Thousands more are entering the program in the coming year.
At the same time, in 2013, 5 gangs were prosecuted and put in prison, while so far in 2015, 33 gangs have been broken up. However, using the conversion process, they have broken up more than 150 gangs, so the process is both cheaper and more effective than just incarceration.
On the security budget
According to Rodolfo, Varela insists on cost justifying everything. When asked to justify increased spending on security, Rodolfo said, to paraphrase, “Well you just spent $3 billion on a transit system that was number three on the concerns of Panamanians. Crime is number one - how much are you spending on that?”
He also described a nationwide camera system that is being contracted for, 2,000 cameras across the country, built by a British firm [the British are the video security kings of the world], which will allow police to zero in on crimes in progress, track license numbers and trace the car’s movement back through time, days or weeks before, face recognition and more. He said that the face recognition system in Tucomen airport had already caught more than a hundred criminals.
Panama is not getting enough out of its police forces. Most Latin American countries have between 1.5 and 2.5 police per 1,000 people. The international norm is 3. Panama has 6 policemen per 1000 people. Many are assigned to desk duty rather than what they were trained for. So the current administration is moving them out to the streets, but it is a long process involving 30,000 public service employees and almost a billion dollar budget.
On guns
Rodolfo said that the ban on gun imports would be lifted in January, 2016. However, he and Varela are not totally agreed on the licensing strategy. Rodolfo said that 80% of violent gun attacks in the US are by people with a prior history of violence. Therefore, he favors a shorter registration process but much more detailed background checks.
On Crimes by Minors
The short answer is that Panama's laws are based on a UN treaty for treatment of minors. Rodolfo got his Master's Degree in England and is quite sophisticated in his understanding of European thinking. In those countries with advanced social safety nets, minors who commit crimes are shunted to social welfare agencies. In Panama, we have none of that and they are out on the street.
UN treaties supercede national law, so getting it changed will be difficult.
With this in view (and the sorry state of the prosecutorial system), the gang intervention strategy looks better and better. We have to look for strategies to prevent crime in the first place. Turn the young people away from the gangs and make our houses unattractive targets. Friends don't let friends live in unsafe houses.
These are only a few highlights from what was a most interesting and informative presentation. I would recommend that anyone who is interested watch the entire presentation.
While I appreciate Diane's efforts, anyone who wants to read the post, with addendum,can see it here formatted correctly on the Dr. Sleepwell website.
Thanks Mark, here's the word for word translation as posted on Noticias -
"There is a juvenile crime law in Panama which is very soft - UN standards. These standards are drafted by Europeans, and..."
"Congressman Samil [last name unintelligible] from David is the one who is leading the path for those congressmen who are willing to change the law. It means precautionary measures to incapacitate those juvenile criminals. We have to do it because the law has become an incentive for criminal gangs, so they [the minors] become the operating arm of bigger [criminal gangs].
I'm sure you heard it correctly. But what they said about UN treaties superseding Panama law is just plain wrong. I think that is an excuse for inaction. "Oh well, the UN has our hands tied. What can we do?" It apparently didn't occur to them that somebody would bother to check their facts.
Why not take it up with them directly?
Juvenile Criminal Justice System in Panama - July 28th, 2014
This is an ex-oficio report which appears to have been prepared for the United Nations with data from Panama's Ministry of Security, The Public Ministry (Attorney-General), and the Judicial system.
The answers to most of these questions about the system can probably be found here.
https://www.unodc.org/documents/ropan/Technical_Consultative_Opinio...
thank you for your overview for those of us who could not attend! Did they discuss any direct measure's to the law they could consider to hold the underage more accountable to crime?
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