The Unión de Oficiales de la Guardia Civil Profesional, one of several unions covering the force, says that the Ministry of the Interior, under which they operate, "continues to exert pressure to increase the number of denuncias (i.e. fines)" by creating "a Machiavellic points system that evaluates an officer and influences his or her pay check." The statement comes at a time when thereis an alleged 'down pen strike' by traffic police that has resulted in a decrease in the number of fines emmitted. The union goes on to say that the system could have serious consequences, as the points system fosters an 'anything goes' attitude "in order to protect our measly wages." It adds that>similar pressure is being exerted on other branches of the Guaardia Civil. In fact, the union says that senior officers have been told, verbally, nothing written down, to watch each guardia, whose job, says the hierarchy, is 'to denounce'. So, if an agent, or guardia, is not doing his or her job, it will be the officer in charge whose pay checks will suffer.
Another police union, the Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles (AUGC, the largest), confirms that the Dirección Generaal de la Policía y Guardia Civil has recently asked its units for the number of fines issued over the last few months. Also, says AUGC, lists are being set up at Guardia stations with the names of those agents with the least number of fines issued. "The pressure against the Tráfico agents is being extended to the Citizen Security Units as an attempt to intimidate Guardia Civil agents, so that they increase the number of fines they issue. The only thing [Minister of th Interior] Rubalcaba is interested in is fines."
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