 (TBT) Dozens of trained police in Guanacaste remain un-deployed because there are no offices and no sleeping quarters to house them, the area’s police commander revealed last week.
Commander Hugo Uba Monge, who is in charge of Guanacaste’s 700-plus uniformed police, or Fuerza Pública, said he wanted to put a total of 20 officers in Brasilito, four of them immediately.
However, the small station was already overcrowded with six police.
At the same time, Tamarindo’s 12 permanent uniformed police are now operating from outside the town, in neighboring Villareal, because their office, which had been on loan to them, was demolished to make way for real estate development.
Further, 25 new tourist police are destined for the Guanacaste coast for the start of the high season, and again, there is no where to house them.
Commander Uba was speaking to about 70 people from Playa Flamingo and Playa Potrero, at a town meeting called to decide how to raise sufficient funds to build a new facility in Brasilito to replace the old one.
“Yes, we have the police officers to send to the region,” Commander Uba said after the meeting.
“I expect the station in Brasilito to have 20 police officers if and when it is completed,” Commander Uba said. “We have six or eight right now, and I have four more to deploy immediately, but nowhere to put them.
“These men will come from Liberia, where we have our own training institute.”
Commander Uba also confirmed a promise from the country’s investigative police, the Organismo de Investigación Judicial, or OIJ, to place two agents in Brasilito.
Currently, crimes committed from Tamarindo to Sugar Beach must be reported to the OIJ in Santa Cruz, often more than an hour away by car.
The meeting heard there are plans to build a two-story facility on the site of the old police station, which would house uniformed police, tourist police, agents from the OIJ, immigration police and possibly some municipal police.
The project, which would be funded by private donations, is being coordinated by the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism.
The Chamber’s Executive Director, Mauricio Céspedes told the meeting the total budget for the new police station was between $150,000 and $200,000. So far they have commitments for about 75 per cent of the money necessary.
“We have the land, we have the blue prints for the building, we have everything we need to get started,” Mr Céspedes said.
Meanwhile, ten kilometers (6.25 miles) south, in Tamarindo, a group of realtors and developers have been meeting to try to generate enough interest in a similar project.
Grant McLean, head of the security committee for the Asociación Pro Mejoras de Playa Tamarindo (Tamarindo Association) said a core of six or seven realtors and developers had been meeting for about six months over the idea for a new police station.
As with the Brasilito project, the Municipality of Santa Cruz had agreed to make available an 1800-square-meter lot of land, east of the town.
“What we have been focusing upon is the station for the Fuerza Pública,” Mr McLean said. “But I also understand there are 25 new tourist police coming to the area and they want to send some of them to Tamarindo.”
Federico Amador, Executive Director of the Tamarindo Association said as a temporary measure the OIJ had offered a trailer which could act as an office for the Fuerza Pública.
“We have also found a house where the officers can stay,” said Mr Amador, who added the town’s 12 permanent police were currently operating from Villareal.
“We keep trying to bring police to the town but they will only come under certain conditions — an office, a place to sleep, and we cannot provide that.”
Mr Amador said they had reached an agreement with Grupo Roble, the developers behind the J.W. Marriott Hotel project, who would provide architectural plans for the Tamarindo police station.
He had also met with the OIJ, who had shown an interest in basing agents in the facility, although it is unlikely the investigative branch would have representatives in both Brasilito and Tamarindo.
“Right now we are expecting the final plans from Grupo Roble,” Mr Amador said. “When we get them we can set up a budget and start raising money.”
The Beach Times (TBT) By Ralph Nicholson
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
