The Ministry of Public Safety in Costa Rica has recently been busy policing its own law enforcement agencies. From mass firings to investigations and from suspensions to arrests, the Ministry is weeding out elements that tarnish the reputation of its officers who are sworn to protect and serve.

Special Agent in San Carlos Faces Two Investigations

On April 18^th , an agent from the Office of Judicial Investigations (OIJ) detachment in San Carlos was arrested by his own coworkers. Special Agent Cerdas was allegedly planning a revenge assault on a female bank clerk. The allegations brought up against Special Agent Cerdas are sordid: his coworkers found out that he was plotting an attack on a woman who was supposedly trying to convince his girlfriend to leave him.

Special Agent Cerdas supposedly contacted a common criminal with experience in burglary, fraud and bar brawls, with the intention of delivering a beating to the woman. Cerdas gave the man 15,000 colones as a down payment, with the condition that more would be paid depending on the severity of the injury inflicted on the woman. What Special Agent Cerdas did not know is that the derelict had already contacted other agents on the matter. The would-be contract bruiser was secretly recording the meeting and marking bills which he returned to Special Agent Cerdas.

The agent was already under investigation for holding two young men at gunpoint for two hours after they threw rocks at the roof of a woman’s home in La Tigra de San Carlos.

Fuerza Publica Fires 246 Officers and 11 Administrative Employees

In an official press release, Fuerza Publica stated that almost 250 cops were fired during the period of May 2010 to December 2011 because they did not meet the requirements set forth by the Ministry for the most visible of all law enforcement agencies in Costa Rica.

The firings, which included 11 clerks, are part of an evaluation and quality control program that begins at the Police Academy level and continues throughout the careers of the Fuerza Publica officers. The aspects evaluated include discipline, efficiency, interpersonal relationships, public relations, and others.

Two Patrolmen Accused of Aggravated Robbery

According to an article published in the national newspaper La Nacion, on April 17^th at 11:00 pm two Fuerza Publica patrolmen approached a foreign man (digital newspaper Costa Rica Hoy described him as a 44-year old man from Nicaragua), and pushed him into a patrol car -ostensibly to drive him to a precinct and check his immigration documents. This happened near the church of La Merced, an area frequented by Nicaraguan immigrants.

The two officers, aged 27 and 38, drove the victim to Barrio Cuba in San Jose. Once there, they relieved him of his documents and 100,000 colones, but not before thoroughly beating him up. They left the man near the Moreno Canas clinic. He dialed 911 from a payphone, and a patrol car from Pavas took him directly to an OIJ office.

Internal affairs placed the two patrolmen under surveillance, and once they had enough evidence they turned them over to prosecutors who properly filed criminal charges. The two officers are currently suspended until their day in court comes up.