SAN JUAN—On May 1, 2012, the FBI-San
Juan Field Office and the Police of Puerto Rico began the Save Our Streets
(SOS) Initiative in coordination with the United States Attorney’s Office for
the District of Puerto Rico.
The primary focus of this initiative is
two-fold:
1. Carjackings committed during this
period and
2. Selected unsolved carjackings that
have been committed in Puerto Rico and are within the federal statute of
limitations.
This initiative is being funded by the
FBI and is being supported by the Criminal Investigation Division, Violent
Crime Threat Section at FBI-Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Police of
Puerto Rico has provided 15 fifteen officers who have been deputized as federal
officers for this initiative. The FBI is also assigning FBI agents on a
temporary duty basis from the United States to work exclusively on this
initiative.
The SOS Initiative was first implemented
in 2010 by the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI to focus on gang-related
violence and homicides. Consequently, other FBI field offices have implemented
this initiative, resulting in a significant reduction in violence of the
targeted neighborhoods. The FBI SOS Initiative is designed to be tailored to
the needs of each specific FBI office in order to address the crime problem in
their respective area of responsibility.
“The anticipated positive impact this
initiative will have on the community should not only lead to the arrests and
convictions of the individuals who commit these carjackings in Puerto Rico but
also to provide intelligence that will assist in ongoing FBI investigations,”
said Joseph Campbell, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI-San Juan Field Office.
“This is yet another joint effort to
aggressively combat violent crime in Puerto Rico. The U.S. Attorney’s Office
will give its full support to the FBI and the Police of Puerto Rico with the
prosecution of all cases resulting from the SOS initiative,” said Rosa Emilia
Rodriguez, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.
“The Police of Puerto Rico will
participate with federal and local agencies in any effort to address serious
criminal activity in Puerto Rico. I feel confident that our deputized officers
assigned to the Save Our Streets Initiative will make a strong contribution to
the joint fight against crime. I encourage the public to support all law
enforcement in our efforts to reduce crime in Puerto Rico,” said Hector
Pesquera, Superintendent of the Police of Puerto Rico.
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