María Mari Narváez, executive director of Kilómetro 0, an organization that monitors civil rights violations committed by police, said a culture of loyalty and cover-up exists in the Bureau that protects abusers and tolerates domestic violence in its ranks, making it difficult for women to file or enforce a complaint against her police officer partner.

“The police have to be the most powerful institution in the entire patriarchy,” said Mari Narváez. “You already know that when you go to report it, be it to the police or to court, the abusive police officer will find out what you intend to do probably the same day that you are going to file the complaint.” The activist, who has monitored police violence in Puerto Rico for eight years, said that an officer who is abusive “knows the criminal legal system by heart and knows how to manipulate it against the victim. He has in his favor a system and a culture of absolute impunity.”

Read more in the Miami Herald.