The ERC parliamentary group, the only one that supports the Solitary Government of Pere Aragonès, proposes "reviewing the protocols, organization, tools and tactics" used by the public order units of the Mossos d'Esquadra, creating a "mechanism of external control” that, with a “binding” character, monitors the actions of the body and rotates the agents that are currently dedicated to ensuring public order to limit their permanence in these units. These are the three major proposals that have been registered this Wednesday in Parliament and that shape their conclusions on the work that the Police Model commission has been carrying out for a year in the Catalan Chamber.
The commission, launched based on the agreement with the CUP for the inauguration of the president and with the support of the commons, has debated these specific aspects, framed in the need, according to its promoters, to review the current model of distance and mediation that prevails in the actions of the police before demonstrations and altercations. The origin of the work of the commission is in the questioning by these parties of certain police actions as a result of the demonstrations as a consequence of the sentence of the trial of the procés, of the application of the gag law and of evictions.
During all the sessions of the commission, aspects such as the possible prohibition of the use of the so-called foam bullets have been discussed, to which ERC opens the door in its conclusions; the possibility of creating an external control mechanism that oversees the actions of the body, which the Republicans believe appropriate but which should be subject to a specific law, or the situation in which public order agents operate.
Regarding the first matter, in the ERC conclusions it is committed to "reviewing the protocols, organization, tools and tactics used by public order units". In this way, ERC proposes a comprehensive review: of operational, strategic and material elements.
Although the will to eliminate the so-called foam bullets from the catalog of these material tools is not expressed, ERC proposes promoting a basic regulation on the catalog of weapons and tools for police use, which should be tested by the Government. Thus, it will be the Ministry of the Interior that analyzes a technical analysis "of the weapons or tools used by the police to verify that their use meets the criteria of proportionality, necessity, precaution and legality." This analysis would have the contribution of the Department of Health, which should provide an evaluation "of the effects on people's health of weapons and tools used by the police."
Both in this case and in that of police practice, it will be the "external and independent control mechanism" who has the last word, issuing the corresponding report.
This office would be in charge of the "supervision and control of the actions", both of the security professionals of the police services and of private security, and its resolutions will be "binding". However, it will refrain from entering into the analysis when the police action to be supervised derives from the execution of judicial orders or mandates. In any case, the creation of this mechanism must be done through the deployment of its own law.
The ERC conclusions also include measures that affect the agents of the units that are dedicated to public order (Brimo and Arro). In particular, it is proposed to "advance towards the temporary rotation of public order agents" to "limit" the temporary permanence of agents in these units, previously agreeing with the police unions. They are also intended to ensure support for emotional well-being, mental health and psychological support.
The ERC proposals are in line with those of the commons, which recommends that the Generalitat create an "external, public and independent mechanism for control, investigation and evaluation of police actions". Its decisions would also be binding and it would have the ability to access all police information and resources to carry out its inspection work. In addition, the purple formation proposes creating a specialized office to care for people affected by human rights violations in the context of the use of force by the Catalan police. It would be an office that "in no case should be linked" to the Department of the Interior and would be in charge of providing "psycho-legal" help.
Unlike the ERC, the comues do propose a ban on the use of foam projectiles, encapsulation and carousel techniques, and evaluate both the available police tools and the incorporation of any new material. They are also committed to the dissolution of the Mossos public order units, to replace them with "new multi-purpose territorial units that meet the new criteria for police intervention in matters of public order" and have "specialized training in human rights ".
In line with these, the CUP proposes "dissolving the current public order units" and prohibiting weapons such as foam bullets and Tasers. They also agree with the ERC and the CUP on the creation of an external mechanism to oversee police action that should be able to analyze, review and investigate all areas of police work, both ex officio and through complaints. In addition, its resolutions must be binding and should be implemented within a period of two months. The objective is that "the leadership of security, understood as a guarantee of rights and freedoms, is no longer exclusively in the hands of the police."
On the other side is the PSC, in whose conclusions they highlight their commitment to the current distance model that, as they point out, requires the use of certain tools such as foam bullets. Without being particularly supporters or detractors of this tool, they emphasize the need to provide agents with some tool that ensures that distance during altercations.
The Socialists urge the Government to restore the provision of legal defense to public order agents whose actions have been prosecuted and to restore private accusations to the perpetrators of acts of vandalism. But in the field of control and inspection, they maintain that the mechanism proposed by ERC and the commons has generated less consensus and, out of respect for the task of the Mossos Internal Affairs and Service Evaluation Division, they propose that it be the Ombudsman de Greuges who carries out the non-judicial external controls. In fact, from the PSC-Units they point out that this body meets the six conditions demanded by supporters of an external body: independent, linked to the Parliament, free of external influences, with qualified personnel, without ties to the police and endowed with a budget appropriate.
