The death of a 40-year-old national police officer in Andújar due to an accidental shot by his partner when they were both mediating in a neighborhood fight has rescued a controversy that, despite its chronicity, has not yet been addressed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Since the events occurred last Sunday, a large sector of the National Police has questioned what is known as the National Shooting Plan, a manual on how and when agents should use their weapons. The problem with this text is that it dates from the 1980s, from 1986, which is why many police officers find it “short” for two basic reasons: the change in the criminal scenario and the lack of adaptation mechanisms to the new realities.
That is to say, that they work with a method from 40 years ago at a time that has incorporated other elements such as, for example, the agents insist, the Latino gangs or the lone wolves. In his opinion, the plan does not reflect the current reality and therefore does not prepare the troops to face it.
«The way in which criminals act has been modified. In the 80s, an agent was the authority and very few people dared to challenge them. Now everything has changed.”
The majority union of the Police, Jupol, shares this position and also incorporates another “fundamental” element: the fear of the agents that if they use their weapons they will be legally unprotected. “They don’t know the consequences they’re going to have.”
The general secretary of the group, Aarón Rivero, demands that the Government take immediate measures in this regard. “We are tired of not being respected and that the principle of authority is increasingly diminished, assuming one more advantage for criminals since their actions on the agents do not have a forceful conviction or sanction. As members of the State Security Forces and Bodies we feel defenseless and abandoned by the Administration”.
They denounce an “old” protocol that pivots on “the lack of training in the handling of weapons.” They ensure that the shooting practices are “scarce” and that they do not provide enough practical knowledge.
According to the National Shooting Plan, in a confrontation it requires, contains, “a rapid capture of the threat, a clear evaluation, a quick decision and an immediate response.” The police collective understands that the insufficiency of practices “does not contribute to the agents having that response.”
From Jupol they urge to provide the plan with more practices and to “recreate situations as real as possible for the agents.” In addition, following the death of the agent by a random shot by his partner, they rescued his demand for the profession to be considered risky.
The Corps that have this distinction – Mossos d’Esquadra, Ertzaintza and regional police – are protected, says Jupol, “by bulletproof vests”, for example.
The event was recorded last Sunday in Andújar, when the couple of national police officers came to put order in a neighborhood fight. When the officer whose gun was fired saw the neighbor approaching him with a hammer and a knife, he reached for his service pistol, but hesitated to use it or pull out the extendable bumper.
He decided to do the second and, at that moment, the same sources indicate, he slipped, dropped his pistol and shot himself at the moment the attacker was on top of him and began to hit him.
The stray bullet hit his patrol partner, who was walking a few meters behind, and left him mortally wounded. At first, it was thought that the agent was stabbed to death by the neighbor.
After the event, the man who started the fight and who attacked the policeman in the head and back left the scene with the hammer in hand and was killed by members of the Andújar Municipal Police, the same sources consulted report.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
