Annual Report 2012: Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism A Recommendation has been sent to provide a budget line for the medicine prescribed to detainees It has continued to be noticed that some officers are not duly identified Data in the identity badges must be perfectly visible Officers must access the custody area unarmed 44 25. The medication that detainees must take is supplied by the custody officers, provided that the relevant physician has prescribed it. In the case of the Spanish National Police Force station of La Latina district (Madrid), the custody officers declared that, sometimes and for humanitarian reasons, they themselves ac­ quired the medicine, due to the fact that the health centers did not provide the prescribed drugs or they were supplied for an only a single intake. Therefore, in order to safeguard the detainees’ right to health, a Recommendation has been sent to the Directorate General of the Police for a budget line to be provided so that the Spanish National Police Force officers do not have to acquire the medi­ cine at their own expense. At the time of drafting this report, such recommenda­ tion is waiting to receive a response. 26. At the majority of the Spanish National Police Force stations, at the Local Police stations, with the exception of the one in Medina del Campo (Valladolid), and at the Civil Guard barrack in Olite (Navarre), it was detected that some of the officers were not duly identified, contrary to the criterion set forth in paragraph 52 of the 2011 Annual Report. In case of the Spanish National Police Force station in Algeciras (Cadiz), none of the officers had their identity badge on, with the exception of the Head of Service. On the other hand, this Institution already pointed out in paragraph 137 of the 2010 Annual Report that it was necessary, for an adequate balance between the safety of officers and to right of citizens to iden­ tify the persons acting as law enforcement officials, to make it compulsory for the officers of the Basque autonomous police force to be identified, since this was not expressly established in their regulations. Since the first visits undertaken to the facilities of such police force, this Institution has insisted before the Department of the Interior of the Basque Government that such compulsory identification is formally regulated, something which has finally been accepted. This Institution has also insisted with the different police forces so that the spell­ ing in the identity badges is perfectly visible from a so-called “respectful dis­ tance”. Up to now, such suggestion has not been accepted. On the contrary, it should be pointed out that the spelling of the identity numbers of the officers from the Navarre autonomous police force allows them to be read at a certain distance without difficulty. 27. At some of the facilities visited throughout 2012 the non-compliance of the criterion described in paragraph 53 of the 2011 Annual Report was noticed, about accessing custody areas without any weapons, for the sake of the safety of detain­ ees and the officers themselves, and this is something that should be remedied. To this end, it is advisable to have weapons stands or safe deposit boxes at the entrance area to prison cells, as is done at the Spanish National Police Force station in Malaga, the Catalan autonomous police force station in Sabadell and L´Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), and at the Local Police station in Bilbao (Biscay). During the visit to the Spanish National Police Force station in the Moncloa district (Madrid), it was reported that officers used to enter into the area THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN