The elder of the Mossos d'Esquadra, Josep Lluís Trapero, broke his silence of the last eleven months this Friday, after being dismissed by the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena. He didn't say anything then, not even when his successor, Joan María Estela, was similarly struck down and replaced by Eduard Sallent; and he has said it all now during his practically hour-long speech at the Catalan Parliament's police model commission.
The major prepared his speech ahead of time and read it in a deep, forceful voice. He introduced all the elements that he wanted to present in the debate, not personally about his dismissal, but about how a democratically advanced police should be. Trapero warned about "the political interests" that prevent the Mossos from advancing in this direction.
In a particularly harsh speech, the major charged against the obstacles that in recent years, in his opinion, have prevented the Catalan police from developing in accordance with the interests and needs demanded by citizens. "If we are not a more democratic police force, it is not because the mossos and the mosses do not pretend to be. The obstacles are not in the uniform. There have been too many years of police management with approaches that are not very democratic and that are opportunistic and patronage, and that do not allow growth in accordance with the interests of citizens," he said.
As an example of this brake on police initiatives that are in line with what society increasingly demands, Trapero recalled how during his previous mandate as head of the Mossos a transparency portal was designed to be able to follow practically in real time the development of demonstrations and the participation, if necessary, of the forces of public order. "Someone and not precisely the police have not been interested in that transparency portal being launched," he censured.
In these days when so much has been written about the limits of political action in the police and a complaint in a contentious-administrative lawsuit accusing the current head of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent, of collaborating in political interference, Trapero has exposed what he understands should be the relationship between the highest police officer and the politician: "They should work in coordination, but neither of them should confuse their roles."
Trapero has raised as an element of debate whether the criminal investigation units should be completely outside the governmental authority, precisely to avoid any temptation of partisan or self-interested political interference. In this way, he has reflected, the assessment of the cost of this operation, the resources allocated and its efficiency would be measured in parameters "from the most radical neutrality". He adding that one should also flee from "any type of corporatism that only serves to cover up unfortunate police actions."
He has not given stitch without thread the elder in his speech and has also referred to the communication policy. After his dismissal, Estela denounced precisely the need for the Mossos to recover the direction of communication policy, which now depends exclusively on the director, Pere Ferrer.
Trapero has wondered if there is transparency in this area at the moment. And he has recalled how it was the Mossos leadership itself that in 2015 proposed to the Interior to completely open criminal data. A proposal that, he said, has been presented successively to all the ministers, taking no for an answer. "For what reason can citizens not access crime data in an open way, without filters? Why are we continually going out to explain what has happened instead of telling why it is happening?" And he added that a democratically advanced police "demands a radical exercise of transparency".
Trapero has also referred to the hierarchy in the Mossos, introducing elements that have been buried in recent public debates about who is in charge and how, or the way of being in charge for the sake of a presumed collaboration. "The hierarchy in a police force is law. The Mossos are structured and organized hierarchically. It is not a whim," he warned. To explain that this hierarchy that is now being questioned "is a guarantee against arbitrariness, guarantees the assumption of responsibilities, protects the institution and provides legal certainty to the mossos and the mossas". He added that in general "one should be more respectful of the concept of hierarchy, because it is not there to command capriciously, but to assume responsibilities."
Making it clear that his defense of hierarchy has nothing to do with making decisions collectively and richly. "If you want to know that it is a good exercise in collaboration, respecting the hierarchy of the police organization, recover the sessions of the trials in the Supreme Court and in the National Court and you will see the Mossos commanders assuming decisions and orders when the justice considered that They were crimes."
Continuing with the thread of the hierarchy, Trapero has fired at the figure of "trusted positions" who, not appearing in the hierarchy, do not have to be held accountable either, they lack responsibility if there are problems, but "they can act as bosses." To warn that it is the minister and the director of the police who must command the body and direct its activity, transforming the political guidelines into operational actions. "The Mossos are not sent positions of trust, nor are any other people who do not appear in the hierarchy. They cannot give orders to high-ranking officials of the Generalitat, nor pretend to do so, nor use their proximity to legitimate bodies to direct from the shadows any". Trapero did not mention anyone, nor did any deputy in the reply ask him to do so, but it was not necessary for the eyes to be placed on some trusted positions that work in the Interior together with the Minister Joan Ignasi Elena.
To further strengthen his defense on the need to maintain respect for the hierarchy in the Mossos, Trapero recalled the trials related to police action on October 1. "Unlike others who are still looking for who gave the orders, in the Mossos the orders were given by those who spoke to them, that is why there is not a single convicted Mosso and that is why I personally responded to justice."
And he has not stopped because he has added that "a misunderstood hierarchy can be an undesirable empowerment of the technocracy, just as some plural forms of decision can blur who makes the decisions and even be a strategy to cross limits and act where they are not. it has legitimacy. Of course, disguised as modernity".
To finish, Trapero recalled that he was a high-ranking official of the Generalitat with a 30-year career in which he had risen through opposition and study. And he has warned that like the rest of senior officials "we know what we are and what we are not." To remind those who have questioned that "we are aware of our loyal collaboration with the government at all times to implement its security policies." Although he has warned that the commanders become a "necessary limit" for those who are tempted to separate the police from "legality, the norm and the necessary political and ideological neutrality to embrace partisanship and turn it into an instrument in benefit of a few and to the detriment of many".
And he ended up recovering a phrase that, he said, he said to a Minister and that is current: "Let us build the police that I would like to have as a citizen the day I am in the opposition."
