The City Council of Badalona will approve a protocol for the action of the Urban Police (GUB) in the face of illegal occupations in March. A pioneering regulation that sets the criteria so that agents can deal with the different situations of illegal occupation of properties that take place in the municipality.
With this protocol, the government of Xavier García Albiol aims to increase the effectiveness of the police in terms of the fight against illegal occupations, a key complement to the drive of the newly created council of Illegal Occupation, which already has an office for care and advice for those affected. Faced with a complaint, the City Council activates different departments across the board and mobilizes other councils that may be involved, such as the Territory or Social Services, but also Security, and empowers the police to carry out an action that cause the eviction of the house.
With the regulation, as the mayor explains, "the agents of the Guardia Urbana will have legal security", since there is no clear regulation in this regard. "The area of action of the police is very diffuse, the Mossos have certain powers, and the local police, others", mentions Albiol.
The main purpose of the protocol is to homogenize and adapt the action of the GUB to the current factual reality and to the current legality, so that it sets as an objective to improve the police response to this type of crime and to guarantee the action most appropriate in each of the interventions.
The new regulation regulates everything from preventive action, which they consider a strategic axis to reduce criminal activity specific to this problem, to operational action that provides agents with the knowledge to act in the different scenarios that they can be presented in cases of illegal home violations, with the aim that the police action is carried out with all the legal guarantees in the field of criminal or administrative law. In addition, they consider it important that citizens know that, in the event of illegal occupation of their property, they must notify the Urban Guard as soon as possible.
According to the regulation that the absolute majority of the PP in the Badalona City Council will allow to approve with all certainty at the next plenary session, it is the responsibility of the police to identify the property in as much detail as possible, to identify its occupants and owners, as well as the witnesses who witnessed the events or the watchmen and alarm systems. Afterwards, the property will be vacated and measures will be applied to prevent it from being violated again and the certificate will be drawn up. It is essential, in these cases, to prove the existence of the flagrant crime and that the occupiers have not established their domicile, so it is decisive to act quickly.
With regard to the debatable legality of the regulation that could hypothetically arise from supra-municipal administrations, Albiol assures that he has "consulted with judges, prosecutors and police" and the intention is not to violate the law, but to make it "an instrument for the agents act much more effectively" in the face of illegal occupations, since, in many cases, the occupiers go one step further. "Sometimes, the squatters know more about the law than the police themselves", suggests the mayor.
In this sense, García Albiol affirms that he had the law very much in mind when drafting the regulation, but also that, "unfortunately, what this law currently does is to protect squatters from owners", a situation that also generates disaffection in the agents. In addition, he understands the protocol as a tool for agents to dispel their doubts about unemployment.
