National Commission on Police Reform

The National Commission on Police Reform (Spanish Comisión Nacional para la Reforma Policial, CONAREPOL) was a 2006 Venezuelan national commission which, in consultation with police and local communities, examined law enforcement in Venezuela and proposed reforms. The Commission was made up of ministerial officials, state governors, National Assembly representatives, academics, researchers and civil society representatives.

It consulted with all national sectors, including business and community leaders, commissioned studies and consulted international experts on police and police reform. "The Commission undertook extensive consultations with the police (through workshops, questionnaires, and interviews) and the community (meetings, suggestion boxes) and gathered an unprecedented amount of data from state and municipal police agencies, while also conducting a national victim survey."

CONAREPOL's findings presented a shocking but, to Venezuelans, familiar picture of widespread police corruption, extrajudicial killings, lack of equipment and training, and, a lack of basic elements of good police practice such as an operational manual for police procedures. CONAREPOL reported in January 2007, with proposals for reforms. The Commission recommended a new model of policing, with a greater emphasis on crime prevention and cooperation with local communities, and that the police should be specifically trained in human rights.

The Commission recommended the creation of a new national police force with high professional standards in order to implement the new model. This led to the setting up of the Bolivarian National Police in 2008 and the Experimental Security University in 2009 to provide the recommended training. In the first six months of operations, rates of murder and robbery fell around 60% in the pilot areas the National Police was active in.

In 1958 Venezuela overthrew the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, but for much of the 1958-1998 period the criminal justice and law enforcement system established under Jiménez and the earlier dictator Juan Vicente Gómez was not substantially reformed, and "the criminal justice system remained a blemish on this image of democracy". A small 1987 survey found that 74% of prisoners said that the police tortured them. The police relied heavily on obtaining confession evidence, and for poor defendants a lack of effective defence lawyers "led to frequent convictions of innocent people".

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