Traffic police officers pressurised into handing out more fines

The Guardia Civil traffic department has been sending many of its agents in the Canary Islands letters asking them to increase the number of fines they hand out on the islands.

Officers have been threatened with losing their 240€ per month road safety bonus if the number of traffic fines does not increase immediately.

In the Guardia Civil, since 2006, the heads of each unit can opt not to pay officers in their charge the monthly productivity" bonus if they consider that they have not reached the agreed targets in “performance, interest and initiative".

There is a monthly Individual Activity Summary (RAI in Spanish) that assesses the individual work of each agent: the number of fines handed out, statements taken, vehicles recovered, arrests made, road assists and even the number of kilometres done on two or four wheels. For example, helping a driver with a punctured tyre is worth 0.25 points, handing a fine to a truck driver is worth 4 points, etc.

The letter sent in October to around 30 officers says that their “performance is producing a negative result, suggesting evidence of a lack of interest, activity, initiative and performance”. The AUGC, the association to which the majority of Guardia Civil officers belong, has complained that threats like this “turn traffic police officers into mere debt collectors”.

In July 2012 (latest available data) Guardia Civil units in León, Seville, the Balearic Islands, Alicante, Las Palmas and Tenerife (both in the Canary Islands) were the units recording the lowest number of traffic fines. In Las Palmas only 4,800 fines were handed out, 26% fewer than in July 2011; and in Tenerife 3,036 fines, 52% fewer. In the whole of 2011 194,000 traffic fines were handed out in the Canaries, 9,000 more than in 2010.

Despite the fact that official data shows an increase in the number of fines, the AUGC explains that the heads of the Guardia Civil are not evaluating the work of officers in the Canary Islands fairly. It is one of the regions with the lowest road traffic fatalities (47 in 2011) and with the highest unemployment (33%). "More unemployment means less money to pay fines, which in turn makes drivers more careful when driving and parking, and also means that there is less traffic on the roads".