Places of short-Term Deprivation of Liberty
was requested that the fact of and reason for any searches requiring detainees to
strip naked be recorded in the Detainee Registration and Custody Log, and that
the courts be duly informed of this measure in all cases, whatever the results.
Following the visit to the barracks in Tafalla (Navarre) it was stressed that all
searches of female detainees, including superficial searches, must be performed
by female officers of the law, and that such officers must be brought in from
other forces if necessary.
115. The situation regarding the possibility of detainees requesting habeas
Requests for habeas
corpus is similar to that indicated for the CNP in paragraph 70. It must be said
corpus are handled
that at most of the establishments visited the telephone call to request legal counsel
similarly to the CNP
is made only after all police procedures have been completed and a statement
from the detainee is to be taken.
116. All the establishments visited were provided with the Detainee Registration
The establishments visited
and Custody Log required as per SES Instruction 12/2009. In some cases it was
all had Detainee
found that this log was not being completed correctly: sections were being left
blank and circumstances specifically listed as requiring registration, such as
Registration and Custody
Logs
meals and searches, were not being entered. Indications in this regard were
made following the inspection visits to the command headquarters in Lleida
and the barracks of Sant Antoni de Portmany (Balearic Islands) and Torrelavega
(Cantabria).
117. The protocols for the holding of juveniles are those laid down in SES
The holding of juveniles is
Instruction 11/2007, already mentioned in paragraph 72 in regard to the CNP.
governed by the same
The specialist Civil Guard teams working in this area are known as EMUMEs
(Women and Juveniles Units).
protocols as apply to the
CNP
III. Regional Police Force Establishments
118. Article 149.1.29 of the Spanish Constitution establishes that the state has
In 2010 three of the four
exclusive competence over “[p]ublic safety, without prejudice to the possibility of
regional police forces were
creation of police forces by the Autonomous Communities, in the manner to be
provided for in their respective Statutes of Autonomy and within the framework
to be laid down by a Public General Act”. Eleven statutes of autonomy (Andalusia,
visited: the Ertzaintza
(Basque Country), the
Mossos d’Esquadra
(Catalonia) and the
Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castilla y Leon, Catalonia, the Community of
Regional Police Force of
Valencia, Extremadura, Galicia, Balearic Islands, Navarre and the Basque
Navarre
Country) have provided for this possibility. The public general act referred to
here by the Constitution is PGA 2/1986 of March 13 on Security Forces. Chapters
III and IV of this Act (Arts. 37-50) set out the basic framework for action of these
forces. Pursuant to these provisions, four regional police forces have been set up:
the Ertzaintza in the Basque Country, the Mossos d’Esquadra in Catalonia, the
THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN
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