Tfno: (0034) 91 7400019
Fax: (0034) 91 7400207
Las Rozas
28230-Madrid, ESPAÑA
E-mail: contacto@protegeles.com
Law enforcement units
In Spain there are two police bodies specialised on tackling child pornography, and they have proved to be very active and effective. These two bodies are: Technology Research Squad (BIT on its Spanish acronym) and the Guardia Civil Telematics Offences Squad. BIT was previously known as UITI, the Spanish acronym for Information Technology Offences Research Squad at it started its activity in 2000. This squad is particularly successful on tackling child pornography and its members do also collaborate with special international unities (Europol, Interpol…). They take part in many congresses abroad and play an important role on training police forces from abroad, especially those from Latin-American countries. The Guardia Civil body mentioned above accomplishes similar activities but unfortunately its economic resources are more limited.
The Guardia Civil Telematics Offences Squad was created in 1997 under the name ADP (Automatic Data Processing) Offences Squad and at the time, it counted just 4 members. From the day of its inauguration until today, it has been in charge of dealing with all complaints related to computing offences brought to the Guardia Civil over the whole Spanish territory. For the time being, it has carried forward several missions against child pornography on the web, like Devil Mission, Rubbish Mission and Panzer Mission, the latter in collaboration with the Italian police.
On the other hand, BIT have implemented dozens of missions against the paedophiles rings as Gemini Mission, Klienborg Mission, Asterisk Mission and Troya Mission, just to mention the most famous ones.
Up to now, PROTEGELES’ relations with the police forces have been very satisfactory and fruitful resulting in many collaboration programs. In fact, PROTEGELES was the only NGO invited to the inauguration ceremony of the BIT Police Squad. Moreover, PROTEGELES was welcomed to present its objectives and activities at the first workshop of that special day. On the same way, PROTEGELES’ president has participated as a lecturer at many police training programs intended not only to the police officers but also to the police executive rank members. PROTEGELES’ relation with the Guardia Civil Telematics Offences Squad is friendly and satisfactory to the point that the Criminal Investigation Department attached to it has been voluntarily distributing PROTEGELES’ leaflets. Concerning training, it is worth mentioning that PROTEGELES’ personnel often take part on the training programs that Guardia Civil police forces organises for its Women and Minors Squad members (EMUME on its Spanish acronym).
Our NGO has also assisted all INHOPE (International Association of Internet Hotlines) meetings with police forces from different countries.
Summing up, cooperation between PROTEGELES and the Law Enforcement Authorities has made possible the successful completion of many police missions, both national and international.
