The Minister of the Interior, Marco Antonio Villeda, warned this Tuesday that municipalities that maintain uniforms and insignia similar to those of the National Civil Police (PNC) will be reported to the Public Ministry (MP) to request the withdrawal of immunity of mayors who fail to comply with the law.
The official stated that the Municipal police cannot use PNC uniforms or badges.because the law reserves those emblems for that institution.
He added that the Ministry of the Interior is still analyzing which municipalities did not respond to the letter sent last February and that, based on that result, it will decide which ones to present legal actions against.
“Whoever resists, whoever wants to in some way confront the authority or violate the law by not changing the badges and uniforms of the Municipal Traffic Police, what they will face will be a complaint to the Public Ministry and a request to lift a pretrial. Because these are not things that I have invented. They are not things that I am saying because it occurred to me, one morning, that the Municipal Traffic Police has to use another kind of uniforms,” he commented after the formal graduation ceremony of 301 new guards of the Penitentiary System.
Villeda insisted that the prohibition is established in the legislation and that no municipal authority can deviate from that provision.
“This is prohibited by law. And no public servant can act with his back to the law. No one can, in any way, justify breaking the law. And what we are telling the different municipal mayors is: if you have a Municipal Traffic Police that has insignia or uniforms similar to those used by the National Civil Police, change that uniform. They cannot use that uniform,” he stated.
The minister recalled that the General Directorate of the PNC sent a letter to the 340 municipalities during February to request that they review the uniforms, insignia and emblems used by their municipal police.
“We are still in that analysis. We are also seeing how many municipalities have complied, because obviously many have complied. We also have to do the analysis of those who have not complied and, depending on that, we are going to make the decision to file the respective complaints,” he explained.
Letter sent in February
The documents to which you had access Free press point out that, on February 4, the General Directorate of the PNC sent a letter to the 340 municipalities of the country to request the review of the uniforms, insignia and emblems used by the municipal police, with the purpose of preventing them from being confused with those of the police institution.
In that letter, the General Directorate of the PNC points out that the measure responds to the provisions of Decree 35-2024, Law of the National Civil Police, which establishes that the uniform, badges, insignia and other institutional symbols are for the exclusive use of that institution.
