Director General of the Police (Spain) explained

Post:Director-General of the Police
Flag:Flag of the National Police Corps of Spain.svg
Flagsize:180px
Flagcaption:Flag of the National Police Corps
Insignia:Badge of the National Police Corps of Spain.svg
Insigniasize:100px
Insigniacaption:Badge of the National Police Corps
Incumbent:Francisco Pardo Piqueras
Incumbentsince:June 30, 2018
Style:The Most Excellent
Mr. Director General
Department:Ministry of the Interior
Secretariat of State for Security
Directorate-General of the Police
Reports To:Secretary of State for Security
Nominator:Interior Minister
Appointer:Monarch
First:José Sainz González
Abbreviation:DGP
Formation:January 8, 1824 (as General Superintendence of Police)
May 10, 1979 (current structure)
Deputy:Deputy Director of Operations
Website:National Police Corps website

The Director-General of the Police (DGP) of Spain is a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior. The Director-General is nominated by the Minister of Home Affairs after consulting to the Council of Ministers and he or she is appointed by the Monarch. The director general reports directly to the Secretary of State for Security and has rank of Under Secretary.

The director general heads the Directorate-General, commands the National Police Corps and is in charge of the ordination, direction, coordination and execution of the missions entrusted to the police fulfilling with the orders received from the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, he or she directs and coordinates the services and the central and peripheral organs of the National Police. The DGP is also in charge of giving its personnel the human and material resources to fulfill with their obligations, to establish collaboration relationships with other public and private bodies, to oversight the behavior of the personnel, to promote or degrade the police officers and promoting activities to improve the training of the officers.

In the international sphere, the director general is the official responsible to offer the collaboration and help of the National Police Corps to other foreign law enforcements agencies, to collect, analyse and distribute information between national and international bodies necessary to guarantee the security of the country or allied countries and he or she is also in charge of the matters relating foreigners, passports, IDs, drugs, gambling...[1]

History

The current office of Director-General of the Police was created on May 10, 1979 to lead the two main law-enforcements agencies that at that time formed the Police: the Superior Police Corps and the National Police Corps.

The Superior Police Corps, commonly known as Secret Police, were a police force responsible for the investigation of crimes, the recollection and analysis of information, the issuance of passports and IDs, as well as controlling migration matters and cooperate with foreign police corps. The National Police Corps was designed as an auxiliary police corps of the Superior Police Corps and was oriented to grant the security of citizent, patrol and protect police buildings.[2]

In 1986, a new Police Forces Act was approved and a major change happened. The two law-enforcement agencies —Superior Police Corps and National Police Corps— merged into one national forced that assumed all the competencies of the service, becoming the now unified National Police Corps.

Between September 2006 and December 2011, the Directorates-General of the Police and of the Civil Guard were merged by Prime Minister Zapatero with the purpose of «carry out the tasks of both police forces in a more integral, homogeneous and coordinated way».[3] In 2008, it was known that the Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, was not comfortable with this union of command and wanted to split them again, but that wasn't the opinion of the Prime Minister and remained together.[4]

With the arrival of Prime Minister Rajoy to the government, he decided to split the command again considering that the coordination task was a duty of the Secretary of State for Security and that every agency needed to have their own command.

List of directors general

No.NameAppointedDismissed
Director General of the Police
1José Sainz González19 May 1979[5] 11 March 1980[6]
2José Manuel Blanco Benítez11 March 1980[7] 16 March 1981[8]
3José Luis Fernández Dopico16 March 1981[9] 8 December 1982[10]
4Rafael del Río Sendino8 December 1982[11] 27 October 1986[12]
5José María Rodríguez Colorado27 October 1986[13] 27 July 1991[14]
6Carlos Conde Duque27 July 1991[15] 20 June 1994[16]
7Angel Olivares Ramírez 20 June 1994[17] 8 May 1996
8Juan Gabriel Cotino Ferrer8 May 1996[18] 27 July 2002[19]
9Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra27 July 2002[20] 1 May 2004[21]
10Víctor García Hidalgo1 May 2004[22] 12 September 2006[23]
Director General of the Police and Civil Guard
11Juan Mesquida Ferrando12 September 2006[24] 22 April 2008[25]
12Francisco Javier Velázquez22 April 2008[26] 31 December 2011
Director General of the Police
13Ignacio Cosidó Gutiérrez31 December 2011[27] 19 November 2016[28]
14Germán López Iglesias[29] 19 November 201630 June 2018
15Francisco Pardo Piqueras[30] 30 June 2018Incumbent

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Royal Decree 952/2018, of July 27, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of the Interior is developed. . www.boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  2. Web site: Police Act of 1978 . www.boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  3. Web site: Royal Decree 991/2006, of September 8, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of the Interior is developed. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  4. Web site: Rubalcaba querría volver a separar Policía y Guardia Civil, ahora que está vacante la dirección general, pero choca con las ideas de Zapatero . Rubalcaba would like to separate the Police and Civil Guard again, now that the general direction is vacant, but it clashes with Zapatero's ideas . Digital . Confidencial . 2008-04-17 . Confidencial Digital . es-ES . 2018-11-16.
  5. Web site: Royal Decree 1171/1979, of May 18, appointing Mr. José Sainz González as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  6. Web site: Royal Decree 418/1980, of March 7, ceasing Mr. José Sainz González as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  7. Web site: Royal Decree 419/1980, of March 7, appointing Mr. José Manuel Blanco Benítez as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  8. Web site: Royal Decree 444/1981, of March 13, ceasing Mr. José Manuel Blanco Benítez as Director General of the Police . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  9. Web site: Royal Decree 445/1981, of March 13, appointing José Luis Fernández Dopico as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  10. Web site: Royal Decree 3445/1982, of December 7, ceasing José Luis Fernández Dopico as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  11. Web site: Royal Decree 3450/1982, of December 7, appointing Rafael del Río Sendino as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  12. Web site: Royal Decree 2216/1986, of October 27, ceasing Rafael Luis del Río Sendino as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  13. Web site: Royal Decree 2219/1986, of October 24, appointing José María Rodríguez Colorado as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  14. Web site: Royal Decree 1165/1991, of July 26, ceasing José María Rodríguez Colorado as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  15. Web site: Royal Decree 1167/1991, of July 26, appointing Carlos Conde Duque as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  16. Web site: Royal Decree 1338/1994, of June 20, ceasing Carlos Conde Duque as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  17. News: El burgalés Ángel Olivares, nuevo secretario de Estado de Defensa . Burgos Ángel Olivares, new Secretary of State for Defense . www.efe.com . 2018-11-16 . es.
  18. Web site: Royal Decree 791/1996, of May 7, appointing Juan Gabriel Cotino Ferrer as Director General of the Police, with rank of Under Secretary. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  19. Web site: Royal Decree 794/2002, of July 26, ceasing Juan Gabriel Cotino Ferrer as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  20. Web site: Royal Decree 796/2002, of July 26, appointing Mr. Agustín Díaz de Mera y García Consuegra as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  21. Web site: Royal Decree 967/2004, of April 30, ceasing Mr. Agustín Díaz de Mera y García Consuegra as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  22. Web site: Royal Decree 968/2004, of April 30, appointing Víctor García Hidalgo as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  23. Web site: Royal Decree 1018/2006, of September 8, ceasing Víctor García Hidalgo as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  24. News: Un cargo al frente de 123.000 agentes con la información más sensible del Estado . A position in charge of 123,000 agents with the most sensitive information in the State . 2006-09-09 . . 2018-11-16 . es . 1134-6582.
  25. Web site: Joan Mesquida deja el cargo como responsable de Policía y Guardia Civil elmundo.es . Mundinteractivos . www.elmundo.es . 2018-11-16.
  26. News: Francisco Javier Velázquez, nuevo director general de la Policía y la Guardia Civil . Francisco Javier Velázquez, new general director of the Police and the Civil Guard . Extremadura . El Periódico . . 2018-11-16 . ES.
  27. Web site: Royal Decree 1963/2011, of December 30, appointing Mr. Ignacio Cosidó Gutiérrez as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  28. Web site: Royal Decree 496/2016, of November 18, ceasing Mr. Ignacio Cosidó Gutiérrez as Director General of the Police. . boe.es . es . 2018-11-16.
  29. News: El pacense Germán López Iglesias, nuevo director general de la Policía Nacional . Germán López Iglesias, from Badajoz, new director general of the National Police . Extremadura . El Periódico . . 2018-11-16 . ES.
  30. News: Marlaska elige a Francisco Pardo Piqueras como nuevo director general de la Policía . Marlaska elects Francisco Pardo Piqueras as the new general director of the Police . 2018-06-28 . Europa Press . 2018-11-16 . es-ES.