Policía Armada
|
Armed Police Policía Armada |
|
|---|---|
| Common name | Fuerzas de Policía Armada |
| Abbreviation | FPA |
Badge of the Armed Police
|
|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | August 3, 1939 |
| Preceding agency | Guardia de Asalto |
| Dissolved | 1979 |
| Superseding agency | Cuerpo de Policía Nacional |
| Employees | 20,000 est. 1968 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| National agency | Spain |
| Governing body | Ministry of Governance |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Overviewed by | Directorate-General of Security |
| Parent agency | Francoist Army |
The Policía Armada (English: Armed Police), conventional long names Cuerpo de Policía Armada y de Tráfico and Fuerzas de Policía Armada, —popularly known as los grises (English: the grey ones) owing to the color of their uniforms— was an armed urban police force of Spain established by the Francoist State in 1939 to enforce the repression of all opposition to the regime. Its mission was "total and permanent vigilance, as well as repression when deemed necessary."
In the first years of operation, the Policía Armada was badly equipped in armament and vehicles. Its first commander was General Antonio Sagardía Ramos.
Following the overthrow of the Spanish Republic in April 1939, the new Francoist regime initially relied on the Army in order to handle public order issues. By means of two sets of laws issued on 3 August 1939 and 8 March 1941 the Spanish State reorganized the police forces of Spain and established the Armed Police as a gendarmerie style national armed police that could be used to suppress disturbance of the public order and political organization in urban areas. Armed and trained for this purpose, it was intended to provide a more effective force for internal security duties in the large cities of Spain than the Guardia Civil that operated mainly in rural areas.
At the time of the Spanish coup of July 1936 that marked the onset of the Spanish Civil War most of the members of the preceding equivalent corps, the Assault Guards had stayed loyal to the Spanish Republican government and many of their units fought valiantly in the battlefronts against the Francoist armies and their allies. This display of loyalty towards the Spanish Republic brought about the disbandment of the corps by General Franco at the end of the Civil War. The members of the Guardia de Asalto who had survived the war and the ensuing Francoist purges were made part of the Policía Armada, the corps that replaced it.
...
Wikipedia