Transparency and accountability of police forces in the Spanish State
This report offers a diagnosis of the current mechanisms of transparency and accountability existing in the different police forces of the Spanish State, from the perspective of international human rights law.
04/10/2022
Novact, Irídia i RIS
Thais Bonilla Martínez, Clara Calderó Delgado, Cèlia Carbonell Cassanyes, Anaïs Franquesa Griso, Andrés García Berrio, Patricia Goicoechea García, Davinia Gómez Sánchez, Agnès Rosell Tural, Sònia Olivella Saludes, Elisenda Pradell Gejo, Irene Urango Montilla, Serlinda Vigara Mas.
In order to contribute to the public debate, this report offers a diagnosis of the current mechanisms of transparency and accountability existing in the different police forces of the Spanish State, from the perspective of international human rights law. The objective is to provide the public, the different administrations and political forces with an analytical tool for the construction of public policy.
The report indicates that no police force provides public access to its protocols, action guidelines or internal instructions regulating the use of force and police tools and weapons. This lack of transparency, which is generally justified for reasons of public security, hinders adequate accountability.
Its objective is to provide citizens and the different administrations and political forces with an analytical tool for the construction of public policy. To this end, it analyzes the internal procedures that exist when a violation of rights at the hands of a police officer is reported, as well as the external mechanisms – outside the police force – that can contribute to an effective investigation of the facts.
Through four chapters, the research mainly covers the analysis of the police response to complaints of improper use of force in the context of public order or protest, as well as discrimination based on ethnic and racial profiling in public spaces.