Law enforcement officers are people who watch over the safety of citizens. The national and local police, civil guards and agents of other security forces, such as the Mossos d'Esquadra or the Ertzaintza, are easily recognizable by their uniforms. When an agent of the authority in charge of traffic surveillance gives us a fine for committing an infraction, we have few options to get rid of paying the amount of the sanction, since the law establishes that the facts denounced by the agents have probative value.
This is stated in article 14 of Royal Decree 320/1994, of February 25, on the Regulation of disciplinary proceedings in matters of traffic, circulation of motor vehicles and road safety. The regulations specify that the agents may provide evidence of the denounced act. For their part, the denounced persons may provide evidence in their defense. If the allegations are accepted or the appeal filed is successful, the fine will remain a dead letter.
Sometimes, it turns out that an off-duty agent stops one or more drivers when observing that they have committed a traffic violation. This is what happened last weekend on a road in the province of León. According to the Efe agency, an off-duty civil guard belonging to the Astorga Civil Guard Traffic Detachment identified a group of motorists for committing various traffic offenses.
The motorcyclists were traveling at a speed much higher than the established speed, disturbing the vehicles that preceded them, without keeping a safe distance and carrying out zigzag maneuvers within their lane. They made several unregulated overtaking and one of them even made several 'wheelies'.
After witnessing the reckless driving of the motorists, the member of the meritorious identified three of the four drivers in the town of Hospital de Órbigo (León). The agent reported the facts to the Traffic Investigation and Analysis Group (GIAT) of the Traffic Sector of the Civil Guard of León for the investigation of the proceedings and the location of the last of the motorists.
The intervention of the civil guard opens a question about the validity of the complaint. Sources from the Benemérita consulted by Moveo emphasize that Organic Law 2/1986, of March 13, on Security Forces and Corps, includes in article 5, on the dedication of agents, that they must carry out their defense functions of the Law and citizen security “whether they are on duty or not”.
The Civil Guard spokesman indicates that "any agent who is off duty is empowered to file a complaint as long as they have previously identified themselves." And so it happened in the case described above. "It is considered a voluntary complaint, like the one that any citizen can make, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 320/1994," adds the source. The nuance is important, because a complaint on demand lacks the presumption of veracity.
If the complaint made by the off-duty civil guard is successful, the motorists are exposed to a penalty for reckless driving. Consequently, they could be penalized with a 500-euro fine and the loss of 6 points from their license, in addition to being punished with prison terms of between six months and two years and the withdrawal of their driving license for between one and six years.
From the organization in defense of drivers Associated European Motorists (AEA) they emphasize that any complaint filed by an off-duty agent lacks probative value. "For a traffic complaint to have probative value, the agent must be exercising traffic surveillance functions and have sanctioning powers in said matter," says its president, Mario Arnaldo. “If not, it is as if it were a complaint on request. In most cases they are not processed because the evidence lacks probative value”.
"How can a citizen or an off-duty agent prove that a driver is exceeding the speed limit or that he is conducting reckless driving?" asks the president of AEA. In the event that the civil guard had recorded the infractions of the motorists with his mobile phone, the instructor of the procedure will be the one who will assess whether the evidence has guarantees. “These recordings are not always valid. The images have to offer guarantees. They have to have probative value and there are times when they are not very conclusive because they do not define the place, there is no record of the date… In other words, they end up being rejected due to lack of guarantees”, explains Arnaldo.
According to Associated European Motorists, the situation is completely different when an agent is on duty and performs traffic surveillance tasks. “The word of the agent prevails in all cases. Any denunciation that he formulates has probative value. It is what the law contemplates. If this were not the case, many traffic violations would go unpunished since they cannot be proven”.
Returning to the specific case of the motorists identified by the civil guard as off duty, the DGT will be in charge of initiating the disciplinary file through administrative channels, since the complaint took place on an interurban highway. If the drivers of the motorcycles are denounced by criminal means - if there are indications of a crime, as it seems -, the file will be initiated in court. In the process, the agent who denounces the facts will simply act as a witness, “like any citizen who makes a complaint voluntarily”, points out Arnaldo.
