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) › § 1076 - Coordination with the Government and the Puerto Rico Police

To achieve the purposes for which the creation of these Corps is authorized, the mayor shall coordinate its efforts with the Puerto Rico Police to fight and prevent crime of all types. The Puerto Rico Police shall take the necessary steps to make an effective coordination as herein provided. In those cases in which conflict may arise regarding the jurisdictional areas of the Puerto Rico Police and those of the Municipal Police, the Puerto Rico Police shall always prevail.
In the performance of their functions and duties, the members of the Municipal Police Corps shall comply with the operating and administrative procedures in effect under the corresponding municipal regulations and pursuant to this chapter, and shall produce and use all forms that apply to the case. As part of their intervention, they shall inform the Police Command Center, require the corresponding complaint number in cases that so warrant it, refer the reports, data, statistics, and any other documents required by regulation, so that an effective control of their actions can be established in a uniform manner. The Puerto Rico Police, in coordination with the respective mayors, shall establish through regulations and administrative orders, the necessary controls and coordination on the way the work shall be integrated.
In those cases in which the Governor certifies that due to an emergency, such as a natural disaster (hurricane, storm, flood, earthquake, fire and other causes of force majeure), or in compliance with the Commonwealth’s responsibility to protect and see to the public order and safety, he/she shall order the Municipal Police into active service as part of the Puerto Rico Police. It is hereby required that a copy of said certification be delivered to the mayor and the Municipal Legislature of the municipalities thus affected within a term of not more than twenty-four (24) hours. The activation of the Municipal Police by the Governor shall not exceed fifteen (15) calendar days, unless there is an authorization given through an ordinance or a resolution approved by the Municipal Legislature and signed by the mayor of the corresponding municipality. The ultimate authority on the commanding of the Puerto Rico Police and the Municipal Police when it is activated as one single Corps shall rest on the Governor of Puerto Rico.
The Governor may also order the use of equipment, assets, and personnel of the Municipal Police in the following situations:
(a) In support of the Puerto Rico Police Officers in activities and functions directed to control drug traffic in their location with the prior consent of the mayor.
(b) Summoning, when deemed necessary, a posse comitatus in order to prevent or suppress any grave disturbance of public order, a rebellion or invasion.
(c) Any other circumstance that is deemed necessary.
For the duration of such activation, Municipal Police members shall be covered against risks of job-related bodily injury and the Government of Puerto Rico shall respond for their actions, including those protections provided in §§ 3077 et seq. of Title 32, known as the “Claims and Suits against the Commonwealth Act”.
In addition to the foregoing provisions, the Municipal Police Corps may enter into collaboration agreements with the Puerto Rico Police and/or federal government task forces to carry out the tasks that such entities deem necessary to delegate. In such cases, 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.
History —May 12, 1977, No. 19, p. 33, § 16; June 18, 1991, No. 12, § 3; renumbered as § 15 and amended on May 22, 1996, No. 45, § 15; July 29, 2010, No. 107, § 4.