Plan to reduce public perception of insecurity by 20%

Santo Domingo.- One of the objectives inthe Interior and Police Ministry’s strategic plan for 2012-2015 is to reducethe public perception of insecurity by 20%, bringing it down from the 2011level of 59% to 39% in 2015.

The plan, which is aimed at improvingcitizen safety in the country, has three main strategic aims: consolidation ofpolicy and citizen safety management, development of the substantive areas andstrengthening institutional management. The document sets out the main problemsfaced by the institution and establishes the lines of action that need to befollowed in order to achieve concrete results.

According to article 255 of the Constitution, violence and crimeprevention in the main function of the National Police.

“This, however, has been the weakest area of the institution’s work, partly dueto the lack of modern transport and communication methods, and the continuinguses, practices and customs that respond to a repressive scheme rather than tothe needs of a democratic society,” says the document.

Other goals for 2012-2015 include: to reduce the murder rate by 25%, for thecivil population to have valid weapons licenses, to reduce the number ofweapons licenses by 40% among the civilian population so that only 106,748individuals will have them, to increase the number of safe neighborhoods by 25%,and for all the services provided to be available via the Internet.