Spanish police will inform women about abusive history of their boyfriends

The country’s Interior Ministry is taking another measure to help end instances of domestic abuse

Yesterday, 9 February, the Spanish Interior Ministry approved a special anti-violence protocol which grants the national police force the power to inform women of their romantic partners’ histories of abuse in case there is such.

The new plan was proposed last month after the country saw a particularly horrible December with 11 femicides, which prompted demonstrations against gender-based violence and demands for the authorities to act more assertively to end this phenomenon.

Spain is particularly sensitive to gender-based violence

The protocol, however, will not be an automatic procedure. Women will only be informed if the risk of their partner committing gender-based violence is considered relevant, high, or extreme and if their criminal record dates back to the previous five years.

The police will carry out a personalized assessment to determine whether to do so when a new complaint is filed or a warning requiring the police to intervene is issued.

In addition, police officers must relate the seriousness of this history to the level of vulnerability of their victim to determine if the latter should know about it in order to be actively involved in their self-protection.

The police, however, will automatically inform women who are registered in the country’s VioGen victims of gender-based violence database.

The Interior Ministry held a summit with the regional police forces to discuss the new protocol idea and analyze its viability as a way to detect areas for improvement in the protection of victims, both in terms of effective protection and preventive security actions.

There were 49 murders of women by their partners in 2022 across the country and there is an established ritual where employees of the local administration where a murder occurs will keep a minute of silence in protest.