One of the priorities of the government of Santa Coloma de Gramenet is security, and among the multitude of factors that affect it, the illegal occupation of homes stands out. To alleviate this practice, the mayor, the socialist Núria Parlon, agreed with the senior judge of the judicial party to hold immediate trials for minor crimes (JIDL), which allow the occupied property to be vacated in the time that a guard lasts: seven days. With this formula, more than 400 homes have been vacated in three years.
The mayor explains that “Santa Coloma has wanted to work within the law and, thanks to good police, citizen and judicial coordination, it is achieved that the occupations are not a problem of insecurity and bad coexistence.”
“Apart from recovering the home in seven days, we can vacate the property in a matter of hours if the precautionary measure required in the police report is applied,” explains Iván Nogales, sergeant of the police rapid intervention and support unit (USIR). local.
It is not a pioneering measure, they recognize in Santa Coloma, because it is already applied in other towns. Vila Joiosa was the first municipality to make an agreement with the judiciary, followed by Valencia and Madrid, where the agreement was carried out between the Community and the general commission of the Judicial Commission, which means that all the judges of the community. “In Catalonia this does not happen, they can only be agreements between the police and the judges themselves,” says Nogales.
After the agreement with the senior judge, she issues guidelines for action to the six courts. It is a decision that depends on each judicial party. In the case of Santa Coloma, it applies solely and exclusively to occupations in properties of natural persons, not financial entities or investment funds. To prepare the police report with guarantees, the agents have received specific legal training. This way they can differentiate between raids (entry into a home without consent), which entails the arrest of the person, and occupations. The training allows us to put an end to the false beliefs that squatters can stay if they have been there for more than 48 hours.
The USIR has specialized in unemployment and has been equipped with specific material against occupations. “We have goat legs, battering rams, mallets and even a hydraulic tool to open the most complex doors,” explains Sergeant Nogales. With this and with the collaboration of the neighbors, the majority of the properties are recovered, some due to the alarm going off and others due to the neighborhood warning. “It is also a lie that the police cannot access a home without a court order,” says Nogales in reference to false beliefs about the occupations. “The law allows us to enter by force in cases of flagrante delicto” and a forced occupation is one. “It is also a myth that you cannot vacate a home if the occupants have already established a residence,” he adds.
With this method, from 2020 to 2023, 422 occupations have been avoided in Santa Coloma. In 2023 there were 171 because police action was favored by the increase in the installation of alarms. The alarm trip is evidence that the Supreme Court has considered sufficient as a flagrant crime, which enables the agents to access the home, even by force, remove the occupants and recover the property.
So that the Santa Coloma model could be applied in the rest of Spain, according to Nogales, “it would be good for the General Council of the Judiciary to issue a report that would link all judicial parties to be able to prosecute crimes through immediate trial for minor crimes. of usurpation.” With this, the political debate that eternalizes and paralyzes the modification of criminal legislation would also be avoided.
