Police Assn. calls for protest over undelivered salary hikes

By THE STAR STAFF

More than 6,000 Puerto Rico police officers say they never received the salary increase announced earlier this month and are now calling for a mass protest this Thursday at 10 a.m. in front of Police Bureau headquarters.

Police Association President Gabriel Hernández said the government’s public celebration of a “substantial” raise on July 15 does not match the reality on the ground. Hernández said only about 40% of officers saw any change in their paychecks -- and for many, the increase amounted to just $8 per pay period.

“Some officers received $16 a month,” Hernández said. “If that is considered substantial, I don’t want to know what they call poverty.”

The controversy centers on the distribution of the $44 million allocated in the Police Bureau’s budget for salary adjustments. Hernández said $33 million was used to implement the new pay scale, leaving roughly $11 million for the more than 6,000 officers who did not receive any increase on July 15.

He argued that the remaining funds are nowhere near enough to provide meaningful compensation to those left out.

“I said it from the beginning: the money wasn’t enough,” Hernández added. “They turned a deaf ear, and today the numbers prove us right.”