SPAIN
GUARDIA CIVIL
The Guardia Civil (GUCI) is an armed institution of military nature, whose point of reference and origin is the Spanish people. GC’s ‘raison d’être’ is the protection of citizens, their property and assets, and its core mission consists in ensuring the full exercise of rights and freedoms.
Administrative Police functions; Protection of the Spanish economic interests; Public order; Assistance; Criminal investigation police; Intelligence services; etc. In order to carry out all these functions, Guardia Civil has 80,000 officers (over 3,000 of them are women), who are deployed all over the national territory and territorial waters. GC carries out 3.9 million services per year, that is, approximately 10,000 a day; that amounts to 32 million work hours and one million actions.
As a law enforcement agency, and according to article 104.1 of the Spanish Constitution, the Guardia Civil has been tasked with the mission to “protect the free exercise of rights and freedoms by citizens, ensuring their public safety”.
The Guardia Civil is accountable to two ministries: the Ministry of the Interior (services derived from the execution of the Government policies as regards public safety, payments, positions and resources) and the Ministry of Defence (as regards promotion, personnel status and military missions, currently under definition in terms of collaboration).
DANTE is a project funded by the European Commission