Opinion (Rogério COPETO / Official GNR): QUALITY SECURITY FORCES AND CERTIFIED.
"The quality certification process of the PSP and GNR will start in Porto and generalize to the rest of the country, He announced the Minister of Internal Affairs".
Rogério COPETO
Lieutenant Colonel of the GNR
Master in Law and Security and Homeland Security Auditor
Head of the Education Division / Command Doctrine and Training
The statement with which we started this article does not belong to the current Minister of Internal Affairs (MAY), but the former MAI, Dr. Rui Pereira, and it was issued on 28 July 2010, TVI24 as part called "PSP and GNR will have quality certification", dated the same day.
In said piece "the minister said not a prediction about the time when the quality certification will be on the ground, arguing that 'the process is only now taking its first steps'. The process, that the holder of the Interior classified folder of 'pioneer', will allow assessment 'of more systematic and scientific way', the formation of police, the fulfillment of its mission and the material conditions for the exercise of their work. Referring to the criteria to be used to measure the quality of police service, with a view to certification, Rui Pereira said: 'It is clear that there is no tape itself, but there are parameters that must be checked 'and will now be specified".
Also the Jornal de NotÃcias 29 July, with the title "quality certification of PSP and GNR starts in Oporto", He echoed the words of Mai height, "who was speaking on the sidelines of the international conference 'Security Forces: quality and excellence ', He pointed out that the first steps of the certification process are being taken at the Port, city ​​where the first local security contract was signed (Barrier neighborhood). The objective, He explained, to evaluate 'the more systematic and scientifically' the formation of the police, the fulfillment of its mission and the material conditions for the exercise of their work, namely, the facilities".
In that article it is still possible to know the opinion of the investigator Ivo Domingues which states that "excellence is the objective, even if, for the population, police work is never great", being that "the main advantages of certification, They are the projection of an image of competence, reducing waste and costs, through optimization procedures, and a more balanced management of resources".
Coincidentally or not the first contact I had with the subject of quality certification of security forces (FS) It was also in 2010 a training session sponsored by the former DGAI (Directorate General of Internal Affairs) where I got to know the "quality program"The Basque Autonomous Police or Ertzaintza.
As stated on the page Ertzaintza, its "Quality Program" aims to ensure that the implementation of the processes performed by the various stakeholders involved is always the same, regardless of the recipients of services, standardizing services and procedures, promoting their improvement to ensure the satisfaction of recipients, taking into account the ISO quality standards 9001.
With the assumption that the Ertzaintza performs work based on service to the citizen, It was identified as need make certain procedures, taking into account its importance for the police service, namely: "The procedure for detention of individuals; The action procedure in cases of domestic violence or gender; The inactivation procedure of improvised explosive devices and; trace management and forensic procedures under review".
To this end the Ertzaintza resorted to the tools provided by the standard ISO 9001, namely: "Quality policy; Document management; internal control mechanisms and monitoring; Control Plans; Corrective and preventive actions; Internal audits; Supplier management; external audits; complaints, complaints and claims, and; Satisfaction questionnaires".
The "Quality Program" of Ertzaintza not limited to a mere certification approved by the certifying body, It is a true reflection of the spirit of continuous improvement and the effort to provide better service to citizens, forming an open system in connection with all stakeholders involved, which translates into an obvious benefit for the whole society, and to this end have been completed a "Schedule", that began in 1999.
As already mentioned one of the certified processes Ertzaintza it's the "action procedure in cases of domestic violence and / or gender", whose execution respects the assumptions of criminal law and criminal procedure and other Spanish legislation, and the requirements of its "Quality Program".
All actions in a situation of domestic violence and / or gender are planned and developed based on operational procedures and instructions, leaving little room to police officers that execute, thus ensuring that they are provided to the victims of this type of crime, all the protection and assistance, ensuring their safety, lying in this defined procedure "Diagram action procedure in cases of domestic violence and / or gender", which provides for the existence of multiple points of control, in order to verify compliance with all the steps of the same.
The reason we refer the "action procedure in cases of domestic violence and / or gender" gives Ertzaintza, and not any of the other, It has to do with the fact that the "Project for Research and Support of Victims Specific" (IAVE project) It has been subject to an assessment in 2013, using the evaluation instruments Common Assessment Framework (CAF), whose findings were reported in the study entitled "Evaluating the Research Project and Specific Support for Victims: Adaptation and application of the CAF model instruments on public service"Authored by Principal Guard Silvina Alexandra Ferreira Inácio, and developed as part of her master's degree in sociology and planning at ISCTE – University Institute, as "conduct objective evaluating the Research Project and Specific Support for Victims, the Criminal Investigation Directorate, da National Republican Guard", where the master Alexandra Ferreira serves.
To this end the author "carried out the self-assessment of satisfaction of external customers (Citizens / victims, external entities / partners)", in order to answer the central question of research "What satisfaction about services provided to citizens / victims and what satisfaction with the service provided to partners (judicial authorities and institutions of the victim support network)".
At the end of the study the author concluded that "it can be said that the satisfaction of both services is very satisfactory", proposing so "as the future prospects, it is considered that the results obtained can be – it is important that the be – capitalized in accordance with the conditions and prerequisites for ensuring quality certification as a macro objective of this evaluation, initiating a systematic program of intervention, support and research directed to particularly vulnerable victims, which will contribute, decisively to an improvement, which is either continuous, the performance of intervention systems GNR, especially those specifically dedicated to dealing with domestic violence and intra-family ... It is hoped that this assessment is the first of many more comprehensive and ambitious, since to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a project like Project IAVE, It should be performed to evaluate the results and the impact thereof".
The foregoing it is concluded that the certification of quality of service by Security Forces service is the way to go, It is the "Quality Program" of Ertzaintza, an example below.
