Spain PUBLIC ORDER AND INTERNAL SECURITY
Figure 18. Organization of Police Service, 1988
The transition from Franco's dictatorship to a system
of
parliamentary democracy was accompanied by a major effort
to
bring the forces of law and order and the justice system
into
harmony with the new political era. The police were
stripped of
most of their military characteristics. The Civil Guard,
which
maintained order in rural areas and in smaller
communities,
retained many of its military features, but both the civil
Guard
and the police were placed under civilian leadership. Once
dedicated to repressing all evidence of opposition to the
Franco
regime, the police and the Civil Guard were expected to
tolerate
forms of conduct previously banned and to protect
individual
rights conferred by the 1978 Constitution and by
subsequent
legislation. Members of the Civil Guard continued to be
implicated in cases of mistreatment and brutality in the
campaign
against Basque terrorism. The authorities had, however,
prosecuted many guardsmen for such infractions, with the
result
that by 1988 fewer violations of legal norms were being
recorded.
Reforms of the judicial system included appointments of
judges by a body insulated from political pressures and
increased
budgets to enable courts to deal with a chronic backlog of
criminal hearings. The penal code was being modernized to
bring
it into conformity with the new Constitution. Some
progress had
been made in ensuring that defendants had effective legal
representation and that they received speedier trials.
Nevertheless, antiquated procedures and the escalation of
crime
continued to generate huge delays in the administration of
justice, with the result that as much as half of the
prison
population in 1986 consisted of accused persons still
awaiting
trial.
Data as of December 1988
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