The Government today approved the City Police's access to the criminal records of repeat offenders.

The Council of Ministers will approve a Royal Decree today that will allow the Barcelona City Police to access the criminal records of multiple offenders . By consulting the SIRAJ (Administrative Records System for the Administration of Justice), officers will be able to determine whether a person has a criminal record and whether the aggravating circumstance of multiple recidivism established by the Criminal Code should be applied. The measure, promoted by Minister Félix Bolaños, following the commitment made with the Barcelona Government and City Council, should expedite court summonses and transport detainees to the appropriate court.

When the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) and the Guardia Urbana (Urban Guard) arrest an individual who has just committed theft, they summon them to a trial for immediate minor offenses. The police themselves manage the court schedule and schedule the appointment and time for the arrested person to appear in court. When Barcelona police officers make an arrest for theft, they directly summon the arrested person to a trial for immediate minor offenses (the former misdemeanors), without taking into account that if the individual is a multiple repeat offender and has accumulated at least three convictions, they must be summoned to a fast-track trial in a criminal court where they face heavier sentences ranging from 6 to 18 months in prison. Furthermore, when a multiple repeat offender is wrongly summoned to a minor trial, the summons to which occurs eight months after the robbery due to a congested court system, the court must summon them again, this time to the relevant court, resulting in even more wasted time. The Guardia Urbana's access to the database will allow for "more rapid and effective action, and will contribute to reducing the backlog of fast-track trials for minor offenders in the courts," underlines the wording of the decree, which La Vanguardia has had access to. The Government hopes that the faster application of prison sentences will have a deterrent effect on habitual offenders.

Read also

Access to the SIRAJ (Spanish Criminal Investigation Service) by the Barcelona police is the final measure remaining in the shock plan against repeated offenses agreed upon in December by the Government, the Generalitat (Catalan government), and Barcelona City Council to address a phenomenon that was overwhelming the courts. The plan aimed to reduce trial times, which at the end of last year reached alarming levels: minor offenses were tried eight months after the theft was committed, while less serious offenses were tried a year and a half later.

Local police forces in large municipalities may also request access to the court registry.

The measure approved today by the Council of Ministers will not be exclusive to the Guardia Urbana (Urban Guard) but will also be extended to local police forces in large municipalities that request it. "Local police forces in municipalities with more than 250,000 inhabitants, or more than 175,000 in the case of provincial capitals, municipalities that are provincial capitals, regional capitals, or headquarters of regional institutions, as well as municipalities with a population exceeding 75,000 that present special economic, social, historical, or cultural circumstances, may request access to the registry," the decree states.

Read also

Barcelona has been working in recent months on adapting its computer system so that the registry can be consulted from City Police vehicles. The vehicles are equipped with a system called NIP (SIP), which allows an individual's number of arrests to be determined, but not the number of convictions, which ultimately determines the aggravating factor of multiple recidivism. The Penal Code, reformed in 2022, establishes that a higher sentence can be imposed on those who accumulate three convictions for minor theft, provided the value of the stolen item exceeds 400 euros. The SIRAJ (Spanish Police Service) also incorporates an application that adds the value of the stolen item to be taken into account in future convictions.

Plan against multiple recidivism The planned courts are underway

The shock plan against multiple reoffending agreed upon in December by the Government, the Generalitat (Catalan government), and Barcelona City Council provided for the launch of four criminal courts and one court for immediate minor offenses (formerly misdemeanors). After several months of preparing spaces and offering places, the new bodies began operating in March and May. In just a month and a half, the minor offenses court held 800 more trials than in the same period last year. The Government hopes that the situation will be normalized by mid-2027.