Guardia Civil

“ For five generations the colonel of the escuadra was always a Veciana. At all times in central and northern Spain the country population has supported the police when the government would act firmly. Since the organization of the excellent constabulary called "La Guardia Civil" by the duke of Ahumada, about 1844, brigandage has been well kept down. ”

“ Hillyard had taken a large.38 Colt automatic pistol from his pocket. His face was drawn and white and very set.
"I am doing nothing—for the moment," he answered. "But those two men must ride on before it is dark and too late for me to see them."
"But they are of the Guardia Civil," José Medina expostulated in awed tones.
To the Spaniard, the mere name of the Guardia Civil, so great is its prestige, and so competent its personnel, inspires respect.
"I don't care," answered Hillyard savagely. "In this war why should two men on a road count at all? Let them go on, and nothing will happen." ”

“ This method of eliminating without trial citizens deemed to be undesirable was applied with especial frequency in the suppression of active brigandage, and latterly during the revolution against Spain. Prisoners in charge of the guardia civil were always tied elbow to elbow. ”

“ A couple of them are on duty at the exit of every railway station of importance, and on lonely country roads, marching on each side, you will come across a pair, carrying their rifles at the slope, prepared for action. The purpose of this system of patrol is to lessen the risk of both men being surprised at once.
The Civil Guards exercise a wide influence over the people, and to them is largely due the present peaceful state of the country. The total strength of the force is twenty-five thousand men, of whom five thousand are mounted. ”

“ The Civil Guard will refrain with the greatest scrupulousness from drawing near to listen to any knot of people in street, shop, or private house, for this would be an act of espionage, altogether outside the office and beneath the dignity of any member of the force."
That such rules have molded her exemplary constabulary, no one will deny who has traveled much in Spain. They are loved and respected by the people ”

“ Well on in the morning I entered a forest, at a side road of which I was joined by two guardias civiles, who marched for an hour with me exchanging information and marveling that I had wandered so far afield. It has been my lot to become well, nay, intimately acquainted with the police of many lands, and I know of none that, as a body, are more nearly what police should be than these civil guards of Spain, to whom is due the suppression of all the old picturesque insecurities of the road. They have neither the bully-ism of our own club-wielders nor the childishness of Asiatic officers. ”

“ But the recruit finds that the corporal in charge of his room, the drill instructor in charge of him at drill, the sergeant in charge of his section or troop, the non-commissioned officer under whose supervision he does his fatigues, and a host of other superiors, are all capable of either placing him in the guard-room to await trial or of informing35 him that he is under open arrest, and equally liable for trial—and this for offences which would not count as such in civilian life, for three-quarters of the military “crimes” are not crimes at all in the civil code. ”

“ The Fourth Dragoon Guards, under a well-regulated system of discipline and the direction of intelligent officers, in whom the men have confidence, have evinced their usefulness to the country by their firm and temperate conduct on home duty, as well as by their bravery in the field when called upon to combat a foreign enemy. Instances frequently occur, in which the magistrates call for [80] the aid of the military, without whose co-operation the civil police would sometimes be unequal to repress and control the violence of a lawless mob. ”

“ As it was, we gave each man a bonus of five francs, and then had paid for our tickets only about half the established rate.
Personal Safety.—Risk of bodily peril from the attacks of bandits, on the accustomed lines of travel in Spain, need no longer be feared. The formidable pillagers who once gathered toll along all the highways and by-ways have been suppressed by the Civil Guards, or military police, a very trustworthy and thorough organization, which really seems to be the most (and is, perhaps, the sole) efficient thing about the government of the kingdom. ”

“ Guards of the Bureau of Prisons and of provincial and city jails are authorized to carry their duly licensed firearms only within the premises of the prison or jail in which they are actually on guard duty, and/or while escorting prisoners therefrom to offices of provincial/city fiscals or to military tribunals or civil courts in compliance with subpoena issued for the purpose, and return. ”

“ The Police of the Protectorate shall be treated, as far as have been mobilised, as active troops. Those members of the Police who are on duty on distant stations shall remain at their posts until relieved by the Union troops, in order that the lives and property of non- combatants may be protected.
(9) Civil officials in the employment of the German Government of the Protectorate shall be allowed to remain in their homes provided they sign the parole above mentioned in paragraph (4) . ”

“ Over the last two centuries the military police—or provost marshals as they were called during much of their history—evolved from a group of miscellaneous units and men organized on a temporary basis in time of national emergency to perform a limited range of law and order responsibilities into today's highly organized and trained combat support force. During the 1980s military police units carried out many of the wide-ranging duties they have assumed in the Army, such as fighting in Grenada ”

“ Civil Guard The peacetime mission of the Civil Guard is the maintenance of law and order throughout rural Spain and frontier areas. It performs highway traffic control duties, maintains customs control along the borders, and operates an effective intelligence network in connection with its responsibilities for the prevention of subversive activities and control of smuggling. ”

“ These Civil Guards are picked men, robust, strapping, seasoned fellows, and are distributed over the country like the French gendarmery, to whose duties theirs are similar. They form a corps d'élite, and are the very mainstay of order. In fact, without them life and property during times of political commotion would very often be at the mercy of any horde of ragamuffins with weapons in their hands and the courage to use them. ”

“ Amateur and professional schoolmasters, temporary and permanent civil servants, with those who were over age or unfit for the army, met to the number of many thousands in these days on one field of war activity which deserves a few words of commemoration. To relieve the regular police, already depleted, in their normal duties and to furnish an additional force to guard railway-bridges, power-stations and similar vital parts from enemy attack, the government authorized the enrolment of special constables ”

“ A few army officers are assigned to the Civil Guard for special duties, such as communications, supply, weapons specialties, and general staff functions. All enlisted men are volunteers. Except for sons (including orphans) of Civil Guard personnel, all enlisted men must have completed their term of compulsory service. The former, who receive preference when vacancies occur, enter a special preparatory school (Colegio de Guardias Jovenes) as children; their training is rigid. ”

“ Unlike the Gendarmérie of Haiti the Guardia is confined in its duties to matters of national defense; municipal police still keep order in the cities. We got the impression during our short stay that the Guardia officers were not quite the equal of those of the Gendarmérie. For one thing the pay is less attractive, though that of the men is fifty per cent. ”

“ The Carabinieri have a special status in Italy, and only men of the very highest character are accepted for the corps. In peace time they are country constabulary, and patrol the rural districts; in war they automatically become military police and are exclusively employed in the immediate rear of the fighting line, watching for deserters, looking after prisoners, carrying despatches, and so forth. They only take orders from their own officers, and never do any military service. ”

“ Provost guards are used in the absence of military police, generally in conjunction with the civil authorities at or near large posts or encampments, to preserve order among soldiers beyond the interior guard. ”

“ The National Guard and the Posse Comitatus Act under current law The National Guard, for reasons that are at least partially historical, is not subject to the same legal restrictions placed on active duty and reserve military personnel with regard to involvement in civilian law enforcement. [24] Having evolved from the State militia concept, the National Guard holds the unique position as both a State and a national military force. ”

“ The corporal of the guard will arrest all suspicious looking characters prowling about the post or camp, all persons of a disorderly character disturbing the peace, and all persons taken in the act of committing crime against the Government on a military reservation or post. All persons arrested by corporals of the guard, or by sentinels, will at once be conducted to the commander of the guard by the corporal. ”

“ The assets that make the Military Police Corps so valuable in contemporary battlefield doctrine are actually quite similar to those possessed by the Marechaussee Corps in the Revolutionary War. While traveling a difficult road to organizational permanence and recognition as an organic element of the Army's fighting team, military police have along the way carefully adapted their mobility and communications capability to a myriad of new duties and responsibilities, leaving the corps ready to assume greater responsibilities and duties in the Army of the future. ”

“ The Prefect of Police has beneath his orders all the police of the capital, or rather of the department to which the capital belongs. This service is divided into two special organisations: Municipal Police and Agents of Security. The “Security” force consists of three hundred agents with the title of inspector, commanded by five chief inspectors, ten brigadiers, and twenty sub-brigadiers. These agents are employed in arresting malefactors, and are viewed with intense hatred by the criminal class generally. ”

“ The fact that the army's participation in police activities was not limited to cooperation with the police and that, in some cases, it extended to a preventive and autonomous role in which the police were marginalized, underscores the need to professionalize the security forces on the basis of a distinction between military and police functions. ”

“ For criminal justice the security forces under the Ministry of the Interior and all local police are considered armed forces and are subject to military law and to trial in military courts, as are reservists or persons called to military or police duty for short periods. ”

“ Members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps may, while performing their official duties,
conduct reasonable searches for weapons or other dangerous or prohibited items (i) on
persons or vehicles entering or in designated areas, (ii) on criminal suspects incident
to apprehension, or (iii) when acting under the supervision of Coalition Forces, in
areas or buildings where dangerous or prohibited items, including prohibited
weapons, are reasonably believed to exist. ”

“ The role of the Police shall be to defend the democratic legality and the rights of citizens. 2. Police measures shall be those prescribed by law and shall not be used beyond what is strictly necessary. 3. The prevention of crimes, including crimes against state security, can only be carried out in observance of the general rules on policing and with respect for the rights, freedoms and guarantees of citizens. TITLE X Armed Forces ARTICLE 273. (Functions) 1. The Portuguese Armed Forces shall guarantee national independence, the unity of the State and the integrity of the territory. ”

“ The disturbed state of the manufacturing towns, and the numerous calls of the civil authorities for the aid of a military force, occasioned much harassing duty to the regiment throughout the summer, and these services were rendered particularly painful to the troops, from the necessity of frequently using coercive measures to restrain the lawless violence of the people. ”

“ The Army, Navy and Air Force have as their essential responsibility the planning, execution and control of military operations as required to ensure the defense of the Nation. The National Guard shall cooperate in the carrying out of these operations, and shall have as its basic responsibility that of conducting operations as required to maintain internal order within the country. The National Armed Forces shall carry out activities of administrative policing and criminal investigation activities as provided for by law. ”

“ A couple of Civil Guards accompany every train, and detachments of them are stationed in every town and village, in addition to mounted men charged with the care of the rural districts. They are continually changed [221] from place to place, to prevent any danger of becoming too friendly with those they are intended to control, and the result is that they have an exhaustive knowledge of the feeling of the people. ”

“ In fact, long patrols of the National Guard, preceded by men marching with fixed bayonets, troops of citizens, armed at hazard, pushing against each other, gendarmes closely examining each doorway, and strictly scrutinizing every narrow alley,—these were the sole inhabitants who ventured to expose themselves in the streets. Every one instinctively understood that some unusual and terrible plot was in progress. ”