More than 21,000 police officers in Colombia have left the institution in the last year due to court rulings

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Judicial rulings against active members of the National Police have removed at least 21,000 uniformed officers. This was announced by the Minister of Defense, Diego Molano Aponte, who also referred to the cases that have led to the departure of police officers from the institution.

The head of the portfolio that coordinates the public force and the Colombian military forces was given in the framework of the presentation of the human capital implemented by the Ministry of Defense and which was announced this Monday, December 13.

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In that announcement, Molano recalled that as a result of the pandemic, the integration of members to the Police and its various units stopped, and therefore now, with the new work that will be carried out, they will focus on Colombians who leave for the military and police career to find a renewed institution with a vocation of service.

“Colombia faces one of the biggest challenges for the coming decades, which is the change of the population bonus, that every time we have an aging population,” said the Minister of Defense, while stressing that the public force is committed to working for new development prospects that allow young people to adapt to the current realities of the country.

He concluded that it is the young people who will face in the coming years the possibility that has materialized in the recent law of social investment, to have a free education in the coming years, which increases the ability to incorporate this group of people into the Armed Forces and National Police.

This information is known after this same Monday, December 13, the Senate unanimously approved the reform of the Police, which includes from stronger sanctions to those in uniform who violate the law and commit abuses, to a salary improvement for the members of the executive level and equality in some benefit rights that were only for the officers of the institution.

Given the news, the Minister of the Interior, Daniel Palacios, celebrated that progress is being made to improve the conditions and demands of the institution since the members of the public force deserve to have better conditions.

“We are advancing in a project that allows precisely to standardize procedures and processes that guarantee a more professional police career, more transparent, with greater certification of competencies, which allows all the police officers of the country to be certified to advance and receive better working conditions and quality of life”, noted the head of the Interior portfolio. He also took the opportunity to recall that the national government promoted the project.

A few weeks ago, Senator José Luis Pérez, who was the rapporteur of this proposal, explained in an interview with RCN Radio that one of the modifications that stand out is that new severe offenses are created, such as “the excessive use of weapons, the excessive use of force, coercive means or non-regulated elements and the reckless handling of less-lethal elements”.