SecuCities Cultures of Prevention AGIS 2004 WORKING DOCUMENT

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1 - Crime prevention in Spain, WORKING DOCUMENT - The example of the city of Saragossa 1. What are the number, structure and competences of the local authorities in Spain? How are they elected? 1 The administrative divisions: 8,089 municipalities (the cities of Madrid and Barcelona form an agglomeration) 50 provinces grouped into 17 autonomous communities, 2 autonomous cities (Ceuta and Melilla). The structure of the local government: - the mayor, - the town council, - the local governmental commission. The mayor presides over and runs the town council and the local government commission. The town council is elected by direct universal suffrage and has the power to elect the mayor and remove him from office, and has authority over the other municipal organs. The local government commission is made up of the mayor and councillors appointed by the mayor. Its role is to assist the mayor in the framework of his remit and takes on the functions delegated by the mayor and the town council 2. The autonomous communities have broad legislative and executive autonomy, with their own regional parliaments and governments. The distribution of competences is different for each community, brought together in autonomy status (estatuto de autonomía). There is a distinction between the historical communities (the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, and Andalusia) and the others. In the beginning, the historical communities received more functions, e.g., the possibility for regional presidents to choose the synchronisation of regional elections. Furthermore, the Basque Country, Navarre and Catalonia have their own police forces. 1 SécuCities Local Officials and Crime Prevention. The European Forum for Urban Security (Paris, 2004) 2 European Union Committee of the Regions: Study. The progress of democracy. Decentralisation of European Decision-making. 1

2 2. What is the national context in Spain: the principal strategies and policies initiated concerning crime prevention? Crime in Spain has increased over the past 20 years, this being linked to social activity as well as to the phenomenon of mobility coming with globalisation and the disappearance of borders. The particular aspects for Spain in the context of crime are: the predominance of crimes against property in comparison with crimes against individuals, the phenomenon of internal and external terrorism, drug trafficking, organised crime and domestic violence 3. In Spain, reforms of integral law and order policies were delayed for two reasons. The first reason has, for several years, been linked to the real and constant pressure of terrorism. The second reason is institutional: over the past 25 years, Spain has undergone a transformation from a radically centralised state to one that is materially federal, divided into 17 autonomous communities with legal authority in a few regions like the Basque Country or Catalonia, exceeding those of the Land in Germany. This decentralisation is quite evident in the current breakdown of the Spanish budget: central administration 55%, autonomous administration 31.5% and local administration 13.5% 4. Concerning crime prevention, Spain has gone from a repressive model to an approach relying more on prevention and cooperation with the local authorities and communities. The State structure imposes a close collaboration between the levels of government. Most activities and resources are concentrated in the autonomous communities. At the national level, the police runs the urban areas, and the Guardia Civil deals with the rural areas, harbours, borders and road traffic, applying the national crime prevention programmes and directives. A national prevention programme targets the major cities (Plan de las Grandes Ciudades), aiming at increasing the visibility and presence of uniformed officers and reducing intervention times. The Contactos, communicación y atención al ciudadano programme aims at improving the contact with the population (obtaining information from the populations, communication of information to the public through the media, and improving victim aid). Several programmes for reducing situations favourable to crime (tourist areas, vehicle protection, home surveillance, video cameras round cash dispensers and car parks, etc.) are underway. Several national crime prevention plans have been set up and concern, in particular, the fight against violence towards women: two international associations are fundamental partners of the governmental action (Association for Assistance to Raped Women and Association for the Protection of Battered Women). The reinforcement of vigilance on the borders falls within the fight against drug trafficking and illegal immigration and is the primary object of the SIVE programme. Other examples include: the Police 2000 programme, bearing on community policing, and the Fight Against Crime plan (2002), as well as the National Anti-Drug Plan (PNSD- Plan Nacional sobre drogas) 5. 3 Prof. Dr. Luis Arroyo Zapatero: Criminality and urban context in Spain (Criminalidad y contexto urbano en España). Presentation at the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (Bangkok, April 2005). 4 ibid. 5 Ministry of the Interior, Plan nacional sobre drogas 2

3 In the autonomous communities, work focuses on dissuasion, the reduction of situations propitious to crime and social prevention with groups at risk. The autonomous communities are authorised to establish their own police forces. Within the Juntas de seguridad, the actions of those forces and State security corps and the police of the autonomous community are coordinated. They meet regularly to implement specific programmes and launch thematic or local studies. Regionally, numerous action programmes targeting precise types of offences (drugs, juvenile delinquency) and the conciliation and information of citizens are carried out, especially in Catalonia. in particular, the prevention dynamic at the regional level goes through integration programmes in collaboration with the social services, aid to individuals or groups with difficulties (school, linguistic, economic, familial...), and prevention of juvenile delinquency by targeting children and adolescents at risk. 3. Is there a national crime prevention agency in Spain? No. 4. What is the local context in Spain (local policies/strategies/programmes developed)? The Federación Española de Municipios y Provincias (FEMP) is based on the Local Pact. This is an agreement whose aim is to clarify and broaden the competences of municipalities whilst reinforcing their autonomy and applying the principle of subsidiarity recognised in the European Charter of Local Autonomy 6. In certain cases, it is considered that the Local Pact did not represent new ideas in addition to the recourse of unconstitutionality, which enables municipalities to contest law that might affect local autonomy. 7 In 2002, an agreement in the framework of collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior for the coordination of local citizen security and civil protection policies were implemented. It aims at improving the instruments of inter-police cooperation, support for the development of local competences emergency services, training, representing municipal interests in order to boost the development of Juntas local de seguridad. Juntas local de seguridad exist in the municipalities that have a local police force since it is supposed to coordinate collaboration between the law forces present in the municipality s territory. The JLS are presided by the mayor and subdelegates from the government. The municipalities of more than 5,000 inhabitants can establish local police forces whose functions are limited: security of local installations, traffic control in the municipality s territory, administrative police, and collaboration with the State security forces in maintaining law and order. In the judicial police functions, the local police collaborate with the State security forces. 5. What are the partners with which the local authorities cooperate in the field of crime prevention? 8 6 Violeta Ruiz Almendral, La redefinición de las competencias local: el Pacto Local en España (Carlos III University of Madrid, 2002) 7 Eugenio Sanchez, Secretary General of the Federation of the municipalities of Castilla-La Mancha. 8 Information provided by the local police of the city of Saragossa. 3

4 Various collaborations have been developed between different police forces, the national police, the gardia civil and the local police. Regarding security, there is close collaboration between the local police of Saragossa and the other local police forces in Spain, in particular, that of the community autonomous. As regards prevention, there is also collaboration with associations, e.g., an association of urban security created for the elderly. 6. The city of Saragossa: policies and strategies developed, examples of practices 9 The city of Saragossa Population: 650,591 The most frequent thefts in the city of Saragossa and their variation between The statistics of the interventions of the local police of Saragossa are as follows: MOTIVE FOR DETENTION OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY THEFTS RESISTING AN OFFICER OF THE LAW CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY OFFENCES AGAINST PERSONS CONJUGAL VIOLENCE TOTAL: Crime in the city of Saragossa is identified/ spotted by the various security and police forces. They use the specific methods and instruments for adapting their actions to the type of crime considered. Regarding security, the PSOE-CHA government programme for the city of Saragossa provides for the reinforcement of the Mayor s competences in accordance with the law of the large cities 10 : demanding greater numbers for the National Police, major financing of the State favouring the powers of the Local police, reinforcing community policing, reduction of the bureaucracy in the Local police, creation of a quality control unit for Police activity. Security and violence prevention policy - According to the 2004 organised crime report, Saragossa is the 14 th city in Spain where organised crime groups have moved in. These tend to go more to Madrid and Barcelona. 9 The text prepared on the database of the European Forum for Urban Security and information provided by the Local Police of the city of Zaragoza. 10 Law 57/2003, modifying the law 7/1985 regulating the bases of the local regime in order to take into account the particularities of cities whose population is greater than 250,000 inhabitants, those of provincial capital with more than 175,000, and autonomous capitals and municipalities of more than 75,000 inhabitants. 4

5 - In 2003, an agreement was signed with the Ministry of the Interior as a framework for collaboration between the National and Local Police (better coordination, sharing of information and databases, organisation of the reception of denunciations). - Local police: nearly 1,000 effectives (1,999) - Local police Academy - Victim protection: diffusion and application of the order for protection of victims of domestic violence 11, judicial resolution concentrating all the measures of civil and criminal order (physical, legal and social protection) established by the State in favour of the victim, the CA and the Local municipality. Several organisms are authorised to receive complaints that are then sent to the investigating magistrate. It is he who investigates the measures to follow both for the victim and the different services regarding social welfare. - Prevention plan for dependencies (drug and nicotine addiction, alcoholism). - Attention to immigrants House of cultures: reception, legal and social aid, meeting with immigrant organisations and support for their initiatives, projects for promoting respect for cultural diversity. - Integral Plan against genre violence - Department of social action and Cooperation in development. Prevention actions, diagnosis and integration. Women s Home - Free legal orientation service for the elderly, set up through the local network of Conviviality (convivencia) Houses, coordinated by the city Delegation for citizen participation and the Lawyers School. - SMRU Sociedad Municipal de Rehabilitación Urbana (Municipal Urban Rehabilitation Society): supporting families for access to housing with accompaniment of a social worker and a subsidy that can represent 31% of the rent. Young people - CIPAJ (Information Centre for Young People): thematic resources centre (drug addiction, associations, guide to volunteer work, etc.), cyberspace, information on employment and study grants, support for youth associations (logistics, subsidies/grants, resource centre ), housing aid programme (housing information, subsidies, mortgages), scheduling of recreational activities, legal and psychological orientation. - Youth council: representation of youth associations and dialogue with the municipal corporation (collaboration agreement). Road safety The local police of Saragossa have an objective of reducing the number of victims of road accidents and have developed a series of projects to do so: - programmes for the elderly. They consist of organising debates aimed at making them aware of the problem of traffic and respect for traffic norms, - programmes for children. All the city s secondary schools organise debates on the subject of road safety. The objective is to make traffic rules concerning children be respected, - programmes for adolescents. The goal is to make teenagers aware of the importance of respecting the highway code and of the dangers driving, especially mopeds, scooters and motorcycles, - ongoing campaigns of speed and alcohol checks, e.g., the campaigns for wearing helmets on scooters and motorcycles. 11 Ministry of Justice, General Direction for the modernisation of justice. 5