Spain · 200 years of the Spanish National Police

The starting point for the anniversary is a royal decree issued by Ferdinand VII on 13 January 1824, which established the “Policía General del Reino”. At that time, Spain was in a period of political restoration: following the end of the liberal constitutional regime from 1820 to 1823, Ferdinand VII had restored his absolutist rule. The new police organisation was intended to prosecute offences and monitor public order, but it also served to control political opponents and liberal movements.

The present-day authority did not emerge unchanged from this foundation. Spain’s police system was reorganised repeatedly during the 19th and 20th centuries; responsibilities, designations and structures changed along with the political systems. During the Franco dictatorship, these included the Policía Armada as a uniformed police force and the Cuerpo General de Policía for investigative and surveillance tasks. As part of the transition to democracy, these structures were reformed.

The National Police received its present organisational form through the 1986 law on the security forces. In this process, the predominantly plain-clothes Cuerpo Superior de Policía and the uniformed Policía Nacional were merged to form the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía. The authority is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. Its duties include the issuing of identity cards and passports, border and foreigner controls, criminal investigations, and combating terrorism and organised crime. In addition, the militarily organised Guardia Civil constitutes another state police force; there are also regional and municipal police forces.

The anniversary therefore refers to the historical beginnings of a centrally organised state police force, not to an authority structure that has existed unchanged since 1824. The choice of this subject for the coin places institutional continuity across different forms of government at the forefront. At the same time, the anniversary falls in a present in which the police carry out their duties on the basis of the democratic constitution and laws governed by the rule of law.