Some have criticized the government here in Costa Rica for being to lax when it comes to petty thieving and minor offenses in the community, but now the government wants to crack down harder on these types of crime and more as they aim to pass a new bill through the Legislative Assembly.
Laura Chinchilla, Vice President of Costa Rica, has stated that crime has started to venture out of more industrial and commercial areas of Costa Rica and is finding its way to Residential spots, therefore making these legal reforms important to increase the safety and security of the people who lived in such areas.
Crimes on motorbikes have also increased, especially in connection with ‘hired killings. The proposed law changes hope to implement that motorcyclists in Costa Rica would have to start wearing vests that correctly display their license number for all to see, including cameras, which would hopefully decrease this number. A similar practice is being used in Colombia.
Chinchilla has admitted though that some of the laws proposals may not be fool proof and some could be flawed, but without trial and error they will never know. There will always be the opportunity to amend the laws if it is believed that can be changed to be made more efficient in the future.
The proposal also covers other topics such as more protection for witnesses and victims of crimes, further regulation of firing weapons, installation of more neighbourhood check points and probably toughest of all, increase the Judicial Police’s budget in order to combat the increases in crime here.
