Annual Report 2012: Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism It is worth noting the good practice of the Catalan and Basque autonomous police forces which have computer systems for the information and monitoring of the detention The Record of custody must include a note on the strip searches performed The specific reasons for the strip searches must be detailed 46 As regards the remaining Security Forces, the Local Police force in Bilbao (Bis­ cay), even though it keeps a computerized individual registration sheet for each detainee, it does not include in detail all the difficulties which may occur in the chain of custody of detainees. On the contrary, at the Local Police in Marbella (Malaga), the Institution noted the existence of individualized sheets for each detainee in which all the difficulties, which may occur, are included. The Local Police of Tafalla (Navarre) uses a single record book of detainees, which does not describe in detail the chain of custody of detainees, according to the criteria described in paragraphs 223 of the 2010 Annual Report and 54 of the 2011 Annual Report, and it also does not have an independent record book to register the minors in detention, which should be remedied. The Nava­ rre autonomous police force in Estella (Navarre) also does not have a record book of detainees who are minors. It is worth noting the good practice of the Catalan and Basque autonomous police forces which have their own computer systems for the information and monitoring of the detention, where all the dif­ ficulties that occur in relation to the detainee at hand are registered. Thus, both the chain of custody and the incidents are guaranteed. As it continues to be common usage in the prison cell area of the court buildings, the Court of Jus­ tice of Merida (Badajoz) did not have a registration book of detainees and pris­ oners which pass through the prison cells of such facilities daily. This is a shortcoming that was also detected in the case of the Navarre autonomous police force in Estella (Navarre), since it shares the prison cells of the court building of said town. 29. It is still common not to record the practice of strip searches in the Record of Custody of each detainee. The justification provided by the custody officers is that if they are not recorded it is because this type of search does not occur, but this circumstance is not compatible with some statements taken at the interviews carried out during the visits in 2012. Thus, during the visit to the Spanish Na­ tional Police Force station in the Vallecas district (Madrid), all the detainees, with the exception of a woman, declared that they had been ordered to remove their clothes piece by piece, taking their underwear down to their knees, and they were forced to do “sit-ups”. As declared by all detainees that were at the Spanish National Police Force station in the Usera-Villaverde district (Madrid), all of them had been subject to this type of search, as well as nearly all those inter­ viewed at the Superior Police Department of the Spanish National Police Force in Western Andalusia (Seville). In the occasions where it was possible to check that the strip search practice was recorded, as are the cases of the computerized individual sheets of the Local Po­ lice in Bilbao (Biscay) or of the Basque autonomous police force in its computer software, it was observed that the specific reasons for such action were not expressly detailed, contrary to the criteria established in paragraphs 139 of the 2010 Annual Report and 55 of the 2011 Annual Report. THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN

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