Recruitment area is assessed on an annual basis. Paragraphs 101 -108 were assessed in CMR-12 and will be assessed again in CMR-14.
The Monitor's Office last assessment of Recruitment was published in CMR-10 where all paragraphs were rated as partially compliant. The updated GO 501 for Recruitment was updated and published in December 2024. The 2025 Annual Recruitment Policy is still being developed and reviewed by the new Commissioner and PRPB leadership.
One area requiring improvement is recruitment training. PRPB must submit the training curriculum to the Monitor's Office for review prior to its approval. A Recruitment Training course is scheduled for May 2025 for Recruitment Office personnel. PRPB will be in a better position to achieve substantial compliance when course materials are reviewed by the Monitor's Office and the training is delivered.
The Monitor's Office requested 56 candidate background files from Class 235, including a polygraph exam, credit history, criminal history, psychology test, and medical test, among others. PRPB submitted the 56 files requested, and the Monitor's Office found the files to be partially compliant with the requirements of Paragraphs 104, 107, and 108. PRPB still faces a shortage of polygraphers, which hampers the recruitment process. Once the polygraphers are trained, PRPB should be able to handle the high volume of candidates expressing interest in joining the Bureau.
The Monitor's Office has determined that PRPB continues to be partially compliant with the area of Recruitment, Selection, and Hiring. PRPB is in the process of recruiting qualified personnel and has developed a 2025 Strategic Recruitment Plan that has inclusive selection practices reflecting PRPB's diverse population. PRPB has shown signs of improvement in certain areas, such as reporting that a recruitment course will be created and offered during 2025.
Recruiting, selecting, and retaining personnel are pivotal for community policing and for the policing profession in general. Despite nationwide staffing challenges in law enforcement, PRPB has demonstrated a concerted effort to attract and thoroughly vet candidates. During the most recent recruitment meetings in January and February 2025, it was affirmed that PRPB currently has 492 police cadets in training for Class 235.
PRPB continues to use the INTERBORO platform for its recruitment processes, and PRPB has reported that the platform is useful. However, with the recent acquisition of solutions offered by Benchmark Analytics that will be Bureau-wide, the Monitor's Office is unsure whether this platform will remain or be replaced. Any change in the platform should proceed without delays affecting the recruitment process.
Under Puerto Rico law, cadets are now permitted to enter the Academy at age 18. These cadets will not be commissioned until after they complete the Academy and have been awarded an associate's degree by Ana G. Méndez University. They are given up to three years from the time they enter the Academy to meet these requirements. Once they have graduated from the Academy and possess an associate's degree, they may be commissioned as officers.
Overall, PRPB's compliance with the eight Recruitment, Selection, and Hiring paragraphs assessed during this reporting period reflect the marginal levels of compliance improvement as what was noted in previous CMRs. In CMR-10, all paragraphs (8 paragraphs) were assessed as partially compliant, in comparison to the current reporting period, where 88% of paragraphs (7 paragraphs) were found to be partially compliant and 12% (1 paragraph) were found to be substantially compliant.
Source
This executive summary provides an overview of the Monitor’s Office’s compliance assessment for this section of the Agreement and is an excerpt from Executive Summary for the Twelfth Report of the Federal Monitor, June 2025, covering the period from October 2024 through March 2025 (CMR 12). For more information on the compliance assessment, please see the full report.