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Two policemen detained as suspects in armed robbery
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The security ministry has been hit with another scandal. Investigators detained two Fuerza Pública officers on robbery allegations Monday afternoon, said Janina del Vecchio, the minister.

The Judicial Investigating Organization confirmed the arrests and said that the case involves a robbery in Barrio San Cayetano Aug. 23. Two men believed to be police officers held up a man at gunpoint and took 200,000, the Judicial Investigating Organization said. That's about $344. The policemen were reported to be on duty at the time. Ms. Del Vecchio said that the two policemen were assigned to the San Sebastián police station. She identified them by the last names of Fallas Diaz and Durán Pérez and said Fallas worked for the ministry for 13 years and Durán for nine.

The minister restated her commitment to fight against police corruption.

The San Sebastián station figured prominently in arrests two weeks ago of 11 officers who were said to be facilitating crimes by crooks for payments. Among those detained was the chief of the central city division.

I take this as a good sign. There have been a number of cases in the past few months where police are being arrested for corruption and crimes. It would appear that Minister Del Vecchio is very serious about cleaning up the police and is taking forceful action to accomplish that.

I remember the criticism that was directed toward her when she was appointed to the position. Many here, including myself, ridiculed the selection of a "school teacher" to be the top cop. Might be we were mistaken and getting someone from the outside rather then a person immersed in the culture of "it's us against them and we have to stand united no matter what" really was a good choice.

Time will tell but I hope it will work.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Scratch meet surface....

I doubt that most of these crimes by the policia will ever be reported on, since CR is wary of their perception amongst the tree hugging backpackers.

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many sheep, limited crow.....

Reported where? New York Times? I don't think we'll see the story there.

I would consider AM Costa Rica a real newspaper.

13 crooked cops down,and hundreds to go. Yes it's a start I agree, but I hope they continue instead of the usual CR bullshit of making their statement then disappearing.

VB knows....

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many sheep, limited crow.....

VB, you are possibly the most negative resident, about CR government, that I think I have ever met. Why do you continue to live here? Don't say because of the women. You can find that in many other places and you might find their government a bit more to your liking.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

He might be negative but does he speak the truth?

he may be negative, but he's realistic

it can only help.

Amen, go VB. Speak the truth my man.

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"You can only keep a secret between two people if the other one is dead." Ben Franklin

To ID.... In spite of the shortcomings of the police and the government.I phucking LOVE living here,and will probably NEVER leave except for my 90 day outs. I live a lifestyle that normally doesn't put me in harm's way. To me,it's a small trade-off for all the positives that exist here. However I disagree with you in that I think it's healthy and important for newbies to understand what a third world country is.and how it differs from the U.S. I'm surprised that you have made such comments because you aren't one to hide your head in the sand.

Some random thoughts on this topic.

ID is certainly right. This IS certainly a good sign. There HAVE been similar recent cases of arresting corrupt cops. And ANY effort in this direction is certainly better than nothing, which is essentially what they seemed to have before.

OTOH, VB is certainly justified in his cynicism and skepticism. There is a pattern in the CR gov't to apply band-aid solutions to whatever the cause-de-jour happens to be, usually with much fanfare and publicity. Fringe (or not so fringe) citizens groups stoked up by their political leaders (or vice versa) look towards massage parlors or casinos as the root of all evils and demand action, so the gov't with much fanfare (temporarily) shuts down a few MP's (for handicap violations) and cuts back hours on casinos (before backtracking on that too). Crime gets out of hand and citizens increasingly demand action. So the gov't eventually responds with great fanfare by throwing more policemen on it, never mind that these newly hired police aren't adequately screened, trained, supplied or paid. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of some of these new cops (as well as some vets) try to augment their meager income by shaking down people in increasingly outrageous ways. Citizen's increasingly demand action, so the gov't eventually responds, again with some fanfare, by making a few arrests. Only time will tell how deep they go to root out all corruption, how long and sustained their efforts will be or whether those cops will really face any serious consequences beyond being kicked off the force and replaced by other corrupt cops.

Like other local issues, this is not the first time they've made such sweeps. In the past, in such cases, they've done only enough to placate the complaints. Things "improve" only to a level where citizen won't vote them out of office, ie not as bad as before but still pretty bad. Things get a little better for a little while, but the original problem eventually re-emerges. The MP closures (if one considers MP's to be a "problem") are one example but police security in the Gulch is another. Muggings out in front of the NY Bar are not an hourly occurrence like they were not so long ago, so things seem much safer in comparison, but that stretch is still hardly safe after dark and the problem is hardly solved.

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One last thought on this for Klockman, I don't think that the CR authorities really see this as being a tourist or international PR issue so much as it is a domestic one. To the extent that these cops are targetting those tree hugging backpackers perhaps it is, but how many eco-tourists (who already avoid SJ like the plague because of crime from REGULAR criminals) ever get held up by cops. The primary victims of these crooked cops are the people living in CR (and to a much lesser extent visiting mongers who are out at night in shifty areas where crooked cops & other criminals operate, but who cares what happens to them?). The NY Times isn't going to report on these arrests any more than they were going to report on the problem of crooked cops in CR to begin with, because NY already has plenty of its own crooked cops to report on. Few people in the US would care about this issue even if they did know anything about it.

Until now, the CR authorities might have been sweeping the problem of police corruption under the rug, but mostly because of fear of backlash by its own citizens much more so than by potential tourists. And, since the problem has grown to the point that they can no longer hide it, it is actually in their interest to publicize these arrests in order to show they're at least doing something about it. Remember the TV cameras that they took around for the MP raids last year? Its the same thing. CR may not like to acknowledge that they have prostitution, crime or police corruption, but once those problems become undeniable they do like to publicize whatever actions they take to deal with it.

I know, my point is, before there´s an image shift in CR, there´ll be another ïssue du jour¨to be publicized and even if the crooked police (redundant) are held accountable, I don´t see the local papers running with it they way they did with prostitution.

I know the cops aren´t targetting backpackers, they´re targetting us men that hang in the gulch and obviously aren´t emotionally attached to our money.

When you talk about crooked police, you think of TJ, or Bangkok, SJO isn´t yet on the radar, and I don´t think it´ll come to that despite what goes on

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many sheep, limited crow.....

Police dishonesty and corruption is all about the culture, not just the culture of the police force but the culture of the country.

Cultures are created by the leaders of an organization with push back or compliance from the bottom up. The top down driven culture is part of the reason why the old adage “the fish rots from the head down” is so true.

If you find corruption in the lower ranks, start looking up the food chain to find the source -- someone who is also corrupt or who ignores it for other reasons.

A study on police corruption by the British Home Office in 1999, revealed some basic findings. Here are a couple of them:

- Police corruption is pervasive, continuing and not bounded by rank

- There are varying means, ends and motives for corrupt activities

- Corruption is at heart an ethical problem

- The “causes” of corruption include factors that are intrinsic to policing, in other words, intrinsic to the nature of police organizations; intrinsic to the nature of “police culture”; and intrinsic to the opportunities for corruption presented by the “political” and “task” environments in which police operate.

Another problem is the cops here don't have anything to lose: the pay sucks, the pension is no better than any other public employee, the benefits are not good. It becomes a job of last resort instead of a semi-professional to professional career.

Most cops in big US cities enjoy good pensions, pay, benefits, and working conditions. And if you get fired from the police for corruption, it is like getting a dishonorable discharge, it is really, really hard to get a good job afterwards.