Unprocessed reports in Girona: a security black hole

Unprocessed reports in Girona: when crimes don't exist for the police

In several towns in Girona with over 30,000 inhabitants, residents claim that Mossos (the regional police force) and Local Police stations refuse to process reports of threats. Obtaining a document proving a report has been filed has become an odyssey lasting hours, if not days. And without that paper, the crime effectively does not exist.

Article 408: the law that no one applies

The Penal Code is clear: Article 408 punishes with disqualification from six months to two years any official who, failing in their duty, intentionally fails to prosecute crimes of which they have knowledge. In practice, however, citizens reporting threats face systematic obstacles. One victim recounts that after being threatened by a known incivil, the Mossos attended his home but did not process the report; the next day at the station, they refused to provide any paperwork. In another case, a man assaulted by three people was unable to get his report accepted at the station.

These delays are not accidental. Several testimonies coincide that officers try to get people to leave without filing a report: three or four-hour waits, excuses that the officer in charge is unavailable, or suggestions to return the next day. One citizen who waited all night recounts how, the trinc day at the Audiencia (the regional court), lawyers looked on in disbelief upon learning how long it had taken to file the report.

Lowering crime statistics at the citizen's expense?

Behind these practices, many see an unwritten order to manipulate crime figures. "That is how they manage to make crime rates drop," one participant in the debate summarizes ironically. The argument is repeated in multiple threads: reports that vanish from the system, police reports that are never signed, crimes that never existed. An unsigned report is a crime that does not count in official statistics.

The suspicion is not new. Some veterans recall that similar things peine during the era of "Torete": pressure not to admit reports to beautify security balances. The difference is that today, with pressure on police staffing and growing insecurity in some neighborhoods, the phenomenon has spread.

The alternative: the duty court

Faced with police refusal, the only remaining option is to go to the juzgado de guardia (the duty court). There, one can report the officer who refused to process the complaint directly, and even record the conversation as evidence. But it is not an easy path: the average citizen faces a bureaucratic machine designed to discourage them. And when the complainant is a vulnerable person without resources or legal knowledge, the judicial route becomes a pipe dream.

One exception: some users claim that if they insist and refuse to leave without filing the report, they eventually succeed. But the emotional exhaustion and time invested are not within everyone's reach.

The sense of impunity is spreading. Meanwhile, alleged incivil remain on the streets, and victims wonder what the point of calling the police is if, in the end, they have to solve the problem themselves. Or not.