San Juan FBI, Police of Puerto Rico Announce Save Our Streets Initiative

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.