Criminality known to the Police in Spain fell for the eighth successive year, according to what the minister of the interior presented last 14 February. In the whole of Spain, security forces and agencies –which include the Policia Nacional, the Guardia Civil, autonomy police forces and local police forces− knew of little over two million penal cases, which means 43.2 cases per 1,000 inhabitants. This amounts to a drop of 1.2% compared with the total of the previous year.

This fall has not been homogeneous all over the country. Almost all autonomous communities experienced a drop in comparison with the previous year, but there are four communities which have seen a rise in crime: Cantabria (1.7%), the Balearic Islands (2.2%), Madrid (2.5%) and Navarra (7.5%). At the other extreme, the most significant falls were in Ceuta (-6.3%) and La Rioja (-6.2%).

The balance of crime presented information concerning penal typologies which are more homogeneous according to EUROSTAT, most of which have also fallen. The following are stressed:

• Homicides fell below 300 cases for the first time, with a drop of 3.3%.

• Theft –which is the highest in number, with 711,908 cases in 2016− fell by 0.5% compared with 2015.
• The number of cases of stolen vehicles increased by 0.8%.
• Drug trafficking is the other offence which increased in comparison with the previous year, 3.1%.
• Other categories were theft with violence (which saw a 1.9% drop), burglaries with force (which fell by 2.1%) and damage (which fell by 0.3%).

Of the 292 homicides committed, 44 correspond to women who were victims of domestic violence. Concerning this type of offence, the Domestic Violence System has 51,940 cases in process at the moment.

Due to the nature of police data, which is subject to small variations as time passes (due to new cases which happened previously, or because of a change in the type of offence on further investigation), this data is not fully consolidated and the official data will be regarded as that published in the Ministry of the Interior’s annual report.

These indicators have to change in 2017 due to modifications implemented by EUROSTAT, with the objective of improving the coherence and comparability of the statistics concerning crime on an international scale and optimising the capacity for analysis and prevention in relation with crime. The indicators are linked to the International classification of crimes with a statistical purpose proposed by the United Nations office against drugs and crime in 2015.

The new indicators are:

The data published is available in different formats on the website of Ministry of the Interior.

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The incident dates back to the autumn of 2011 in the city of Lyon. Two university students, Nadir and Armel, were sitting on the terrace of a restaurant when a police car stopped and, of all the people present, the officers proceeded to identify these two men. The reason: they were the only non-whites.

Nadir and Armel made a joint complaint with 13 other young people of African and North African origin due to police identifications being based on appearance. On 9 November 2016, the tribunal ruled that they were right. For the first time in France, a judge has determined that “an identity control based on physical characteristics associated with real or presumed origins, without any previous objective justification, is discriminatory”. The other big news is that the tribunal has also specified the way such discrimination can be proved, meaning that the police force will now be on trial. Anyone reporting such an incident will have to provide elements which facilitate the presumption of the existence of discrimination, like, for example, the evidence provided by a witness. The police will have to demonstrate the presence or absence of discrimination, or possibly a difference of treatment justified by objective elements.

In Spain, the only judicial precedent which exists is a 1992 case involving Rosalind Williams, of Spanish nationality and born in the US, who reported a case of police identification exclusively motivated by the colour of her skin. While in 2001 the Constitutional Tribunal responded that physical or racial appearance can justify a police identification, in 2009 the committee of human rights of the UN took sides with the complainant, and ruled that the police cannot make judgements based on skin colour.

Identifications based on ethnic profiles happen when the police pay a disproportionate amount of attention to certain group of people because of their racial, ethnic, religious or national origin, whether real or apparent, rather than due to factors which raise objective or reasonable suspicion. A report by the European Agency of Fundamental rights points out that ethnically related identifications are not only discriminatory, they also serve to deteriorate police-public relations and consequently prejudice the work of the police, which requires the trust and cooperation of the general public.

As shown by several studies conducted by the Open Society Foundation, the use of an ethnic profile in France for identification purposes mainly affects young men of African or Arab origin. However, the French Police are not alone in this practice: Identifications based on ethnic profiles are habitual all over Western Europe and much of the world. Neither Catalonia nor Spain are an exception. In 2008 a pilot test carried out in Gerona as part of the European project STEPSS showed that police officers disproportionately identified certain groups in accordance with age (young people), gender (men), ethnic group and nationality, especially those who look North African and Moroccan. In 2013 another study by the University of Valencia concerning police identifications stressed the use of ethnic profiles by law-enforcement organisations. In Spain, some police officers have introduced reforms to reduce this policy of identification. The results are published in the report efficient and impartial police identifications.

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Kansas City has consolidated its position as one of the cities with most violent crime among populations of its size in the United States (22 homicides, 2,500 crimes with violence and 1,645 thefts with violence for each 100,000 inhabitants). At the beginning of this decade, the Police Department received funding from the Justice Department to develop innovative strategies to combat violent crime. This financial support was used to apply two different and complementary strategies.

First of all, they tried the Philadelphia foot patrol experiment from 2009. The experiment involved patrols using novice police officers in four specific areas identified as violent crime black spots. These officers were exempt from responding to any kind of service call. They did this for 90 days. Global results were positive: a 26% reduction in violent crime, without any noteworthy moving around. However, the reduction was not consistent over this period of time. Over the first six weeks, the drop in violent crime was 55%, whereas during the following weeks this trend did not continue as there was even a rise in crime. These results encourage the need for an insight into the existence of a period involving the expiry of the preventive capacity of foot patrols (a factor which Koper had previously worked on and which the Philadelphia experiment had also pointed out).

Later, in 2013 and 2014, the Police Department, along with the dean of the university, the district attorney, the town hall, the Probation office, an FBI representative and members of the town hall social services (united as a group called Alliance of Kansas City against Violence), applied a new strategy aimed at deterring potential violent criminals. The work procedure was the following:

• Identify a specific violent crime area.
• Create a work group to represent the different institutions involved.
• Carry out research, with police support, to identify potential delinquents.
• Warn possible offenders of the determination to respond to any criminal activity with firmness.
• Offer support services (social) for whoever may need them.
• Maintain a frequent and fluid line of communication to ensure that they know that they are being closely monitored.

The results of this second strategy were positive as far as homicides were concerned (a decrease of 26.5%) and quite insignificant in the case of assault (a 5% decrease). With time, the benefits faded, just as they did in the case of foot patrols.

The author of the article makes the following recommendations for the future:

• Those in command must consider the importance of communication between the different actors as a vital prerequisite to obtain the desired results.
• It is necessary to be clear about the time required for foot patrols and free these officers of other tasks.
• Police on the beat must understand what their main role is: they must be seen and make contact with people.
• Police on the beat must convey a double message with clarity:
  • Make hypothetical offenders aware of the fact that they are being watched.
  • Inform them that they are working with agencies which are willing to help them if they refrain from criminal activity.

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During the week of 14 to 18 November 2016, the second course of European action was taken against money mules, with the support of The European Cybercrime Centre which is part of Europol; the Joint Cybercrime Action Task Force, Eurojust and the European Bank Federation. During the operation, different law-enforcement agencies from 14 EU member states and Moldavia and Ukraine, the FBI and the European Union secret service, along with judicial services, 106 banks and other private partners. The operation, which identified 580 money mules, resulted in the detention of 178 people. The first operation, with 81 arrests, was carried out at the end of February 2016.

Europol defines money mules as people who transfer money obtained illegally using different bank accounts, often in different countries, on behalf of third parties. As over 90% of such transactions are related to cybercrime, Europol’s fight against money mules involves the field of fraud and payment systems (one of the four areas in which operational priorities are identified for security services to address internet-related crime).

                                                                  Font: Europol

The Europol website devotes a page to money mules as part of a section aimed at raising public awareness and prevention, with a clear warning about the illegality of such conduct, describing the activities of mules, how they are recruited, what kind of people recruiters look for, the warning signs associated with proposing such activities, how citizens can be protected and what to do if such activities are suggested.

As well as the information on the webpage, posters and flyers have also been published and these can be downloaded in their generic version in English and in versions which are translated and adapted to 13 different countries.

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6 October 2016 will be remembered by all Europeans as the day when the European Border and Coast Guard came into operation. The opening ceremony took place at the border crossing of Kapitan Andreevo, a Bulgarian town near the border with Turkey, with the presentation of the agency’s vehicles, teams and installations.

This force has been built on the foundations of the European Agency for Operative Cooperation for Border Control of the member states of the Union (Frontex) and will take on functions to control and manage the border system of the Schengen Area which includes the external border and the coast guard of the member states of the Schengen Area, performing as a coordinating organ for the entire area. This initiative responds to the inability of the European Union and the member states to deal with European migration crisis a year ago, with a short-term series of responses from the European Commission.

In comparison with Frontex, the functions of which are expected to be taken over by the European Border and Coast Guard on a gradual basis, this new agency will be able to afford technical teams and deploy them on external borders without any previous warning, and will have at least 1,500 units, which will allow for rapid and efficient intervention. This will reduce the shortage of human resources and material necessary to carry out the agency’s activities. The members of this unit will provide member states with these services at the agency’s request. The European Border and Coast Guard will have to guarantee that European legislation is abided by and regularly discuss the vulnerability of external borders.

The calendar for the implantation of the agency is the following:

• From 6 October 2016 it is legally operative.
• On 7 December 2016 the rapid-reaction contingent and its equipment will be operative.
• Before December 2016 the first fifty staff contracts will be signed.
• On 7 January 2017 the contingents responsible for returning operations will come into action.
• From January to March 2017 the first assessment of border vulnerability will be made.

According to the announcement made by the President of the European Commission in his state speech on 9 September 2015, the establishment of the European Border and Coast Guard is one of the measures which are included in the European Agenda of Migration to improve EU border administration and security. The Schengen Area is only possible if external borders are really secure. The European Border and Coast Guard will facilitate the management of migration more efficiently, enhance internal security —maintaining the principle of free movement— and share the control of the EU’s external borders with its member states.

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