2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 3 - General Provisions (§§ 621-639 — 1100a) › Chapter 97 - Municipal Police Corps (§§ 1061-1061p — 1079) › § 1066 - Powers and responsibilities

In addition to the other duties imposed by virtue of other laws, the Municipal Police Corps shall have the duties that through regulations and by virtue of this chapter are approved, including the following powers and responsibilities within the territorial limits of the corresponding municipality:
(a) To comply with and enforce the law, to protect the life and property of citizens, to safeguard the public security and order, to prevent the commission of criminal acts, and to conduct investigations pursuant to the jurisdiction conferred under this chapter. Furthermore, they may make arrests without a warrant as law enforcement officers in the discharge of their functions, as provided in Rule 11 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure in effect.
(b) To enforce obedience of the ordinances and regulations promulgated by the corresponding municipality, and to give proper orientation regarding those ordinances related to public security and order.
(c) To enforce the provisions of §§ 5001 et seq. of Title 9, known as the “Puerto Rico Vehicle and Traffic Act”, except in cases of fatal accidents or when there are serious bodily injuries, and to issue the corresponding tickets for administrative traffic faults in the event of infractions of said provisions, and those related to speed limits.
(d) To give adequate protection and surveillance to municipal properties, buildings, offices, and subdivisions.
(e) To establish a preventive patrol service.
(f) To keep proper surveillance in parking areas and school crossing zones, and to direct traffic in the most congested areas.
(g) To give proper protection to the public assembled in the recreational, sports, social, civic, and religious activities held in the municipality, and to keep order in such activities.
The Municipal Police may not intervene or render services as such at any labor strike or labor-management conflict, except when the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police requires its services or pursuant to the provisions of § 1076 of this title.
(h) To enforce the provisions of §§ 1401 et seq. of Title 33, which impose penalties for littering public or private thoroughfares. In any case in which a Municipal Police Officer issues an infraction ticket under this subsection, seventy-five percent (75%) of the total fines imposed by virtue of this offense shall be remitted to the municipality where the infraction originated.
(i) Notwithstanding the provisions of the §§ 5001 et seq. of Title 9, known as the “Puerto Rico Vehicle and Traffic Act”, and its regulations, or the indications of traffic lights and signals, any member of the Municipal Police may vary what they indicate if it necessary, in his/her judgment, to clear up traffic congestion in a public thoroughfare, and every driver of a motor vehicle or pedestrian shall be bound to obey said order or signal.
(j) Members of the Municipal Police may use any electronic or mechanical device of acknowledged precision in order to determine and verify the speed of the motor vehicles which are driven on public thoroughfares.
(k) No person shall willfully disobey or refuse to comply with a legal indication or order given in the manner provided in this chapter by a member of the Municipal Police with the legal authority to direct, control, or regulate traffic. Any person who fails to comply with this provisions shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor greater than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by imprisonment for a term that shall not exceed ninety (90) days, or both punishments, at the discretion of the court.
(l) To enforce the provisions directed to preventing and fighting domestic violence in Puerto Rico, contained in §§ 601 et seq. of Title 8, known as the “Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention Act”, pursuant to the parameters provided therein.
(m) Municipalities may create internal investigation divisions, and in those cases in which, as a result of an investigation, a grounded motive should arise in connection with the commission of a crime, they shall submit the issue to the Puerto Rico Police and/or any other pertinent agency.
(n) To conduct criminal investigations in domestic violence crimes, pursuant to §§ 601 et seq. of Title 8, and to investigate all modalities of crimes such as stalking, breaking and entering, battery, and unlawful taking, as well as misdemeanors pursuant to the Penal Code of Puerto Rico, and the crime of possession of controlled substances under § 2404 of Title 24, known as the “Puerto Rico Controlled Substances Act”. To such effect, the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police, together with the Municipal Police Commissioners, shall establish a protocol in which the intervention and investigation agreements of the listed crimes shall be established.
(o) To establish collaboration agreements with the Puerto Rico Police and/or federal government task forces to carry out the tasks that such entities may deem necessary to delegate. Provided, That in such circumstances, Municipal Police members shall be covered under the same rights and guarantees that protect Puerto Rico Police Officers, and the Government of Puerto Rico shall be under the obligation to respond for their actions pursuant to the provisions established in this section; the benefits granted by the Government of Puerto Rico shall not affect any other benefit to which they are entitled at the municipality where they serve.
(p) Municipalities may contract technical resources to facilitate the investigation work of Municipal Police Officers.
Prior to being vested with the powers and responsibilities contained in this section, Municipal Guard members must have completed the basic training courses offered by the Criminal Justice University College of Puerto Rico. Upon completion of such training, the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police shall certify such Municipal Guard members as Municipal Police Officers.
The Municipal Police may exercise their new authorities and powers as contained in this chapter, in the regulation to be promulgated to that effect, except in such areas from which they are explicitly excluded under this chapter and/or the regulation to be promulgated, upon meeting all the training requirements equally established for the Puerto Rico Police, and insofar as the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police certifies this fact to the mayor. When the members of a Municipal Guard Corps have satisfied, and can attest to that fact, all requirements in effect prior to the granting of the same powers and authority of the Puerto Rico Police, the Superintendent of the Puerto Rico Police may validate the training sessions and certify, or instead, he/she shall require for the same to be satisfied before issuing a certification. Those Municipal Police Officers with five (5) or more years of service in supervisory functions who hold a rank shall be certified at the request of the mayor with no need to take any additional course.
It shall be the responsibility of the municipality to defray all expenses related to the initial and subsequent training of the members of the Municipal Police Corps who join said entity after the approval of this act, who shall receive training equal to that of the Puerto Rico Police. Likewise, it is hereby provided that all current members of the Municipal Police Corps shall complete a minimum of twelve (12) hours of continuing education every year to be offered at the University College of Criminal Justice of Puerto Rico. Course offerings shall include the following subjects: ethics, force management and control, personal defense skills to avoid or minimize injuries to citizens being intervened with, duties of police work, regulations and standards for use of force, corruption, and police misconduct, applicable penal law, human rights, and civil rights, among others, in order to improve their performance. The cost of these courses shall be defrayed by the corresponding municipality, taking into consideration the provisions of §§ 4001 et seq. of this title, known as the “Autonomous Municipalities Act of Puerto Rico of 1991”.
History —May 12, 1977, No. 19, p. 33, § 6; May 25, 1978, No. 22, p. 50; June 15, 1979, No. 73, p. 154; June 18, 1991, No. 12, § 2; Aug. 14, 1991, No. 64, § 6; May 22, 1996, No. 45, § 6; Aug. 11, 2005, No. 46, § 2; July 29, 2010, No. 107, § 2; Apr. 6, 2011, No. 48, § 1.