Politeia Asociation: Spanish Constitutional Police

At Politeia, the association that I have the honor of presiding over today, we have carried out substantial changes in our associative project.

In the leadership role that my position offers me, I promote a general analysis of our objectives, assessing that we live in a world where change is increasingly rapid; a social scenario, where the future and the hypothetical consequences of our actions are increasingly uncertain and, therefore, where the way of reflecting on the existing options must be different.

As president of an association that encompasses professionals from all areas of security in Spain, I accumulated too much information without being able to order it to analyze, deduce and make the most correct decision or refer it to the most appropriate body or resource. I remembered then, as I had read in many books and articles, that, in the 90s, American soldiers created the acronym VUCA to refer to the social environment that emerged after the end of the Cold War: an environment characterized by being more uncertain, complex and ambiguous than ever and that, therefore, needed different ways of dealing with it.

Today this acronym and its effective development are still current and necessary to learn and utilize to make decisions correctly. As an association we need to adapt to a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. From VUCA, we could describe and analyze the environments we encounter on a daily basis, to prepare strategies, information management modes and possible incidents, etc.

For us and our associative project, V (Volatility), it was linked to the nature of the changes and the speed at which they occur. In an information society, where people suffer from a state of disinformation as a result of the saturation of the information they receive on a daily basis, maintaining our structure and presence on social networks was complicated.

This volatility of information and of society in general requires a high level of knowledge and a high capacity to predict possible scenarios. It means being prepared for when an event occurs that requires you to act quickly and efficiently – having a global vision of all events related to security, assessing the different sensitivities and being able to predict the next scenario and, consequently, make decisions and act before that event occurs.

In our case and by way of illustration, we have the current painful situation of the National Police Force in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, where the strategy of the secessionist parties has finally achieved its objectives. After decades of planning and obtaining the State's competences, they have turned Catalonia into an unattractive destination for any professional, whether on a social, economic, linguistic, educational, professional or moral level. Providing solutions, being able to influence the State to modify the situation in such a volatile social and political period, was one of the new objectives.

From Politeia, the U factor (Uncertainly) implies the existence of a high level of information, having multiple sources in all areas of security, but properly assessing the lack of foresight with which changes occur, because we know that change is possible, but not certain.

We must try to manage the unforeseen and try to control how events will unfold. In a society as polarized as the current one and with a political class without a statesmanship vision, it was important to invest in information, since it could reduce the level of uncertainty when guiding our associative project.

In this sense, our empowerment of national and international delegations allow us to have direct information on similar social phenomena in other countries or regions of the country, to analyze and provide objective solutions for the benefit of the promotion and defense of the system. Spanish security.

Factor C (Complexity) shows us that problems are complex and cause confusion in the environment. It is a situation from which we wanted to escape: having low knowledge, but ability to predict the next step. This meant having an overwhelming volume of misinformation. It is the current strategic framework, as I have already mentioned above, where the only possible solution requires restructuring. Society, current politicians, official bodies and private companies will need to equip themselves with specialists who know how to manage complexity. Here a new and attractive workplace is born for our associative project. To do this, we have adapted our memberships, giving way to experts from civil society in this specific management of competencies and in social issues, linked to security, that are currently emerging.

An example of this is the incorporation of Professor Javier Capitaine in the new strategic Vocality in coaching and professional team management: CEO & Founder of GSA- Global Systemic Activation - Coaching, Mentoring & Training. Professor in Physical Education (I.P.E.F. Córdoba - ARGENTINA / 1987). Professional Ontological Coach (ICF - International Coaching Federation. Fellow of the Moscow Higher Institute of Physical Education - USSR 1989. Training in Psychology, Biology, Complexity Sciences and Systemic Coaching, Data Science. Professional Coach in charge of Athletes and Teams in Events Internationals and Championships and World Cups, or Manuel Mercader in the hate crime analysis committee: civil servant and engineer specialized in civil works and activist of different entities and initiatives for the defense of civil and political rights.

Ending the analysis with factor A (Ambiguity), taking as a reference the lack of clarity that gives rise to various interpretations – a situation that we have been very aware of these months in the enhancement of our social networks and news of activities on the website.

We try to avoid a situation of low informational knowledge and the consequent low predictability, in which the same conditions cause different consequences. The absence of precedents prevents us from predicting scenarios and the only option is to experiment and learn through trial and error. For this we have clearly reinforced our constitutional position and our main motivation: to promote and defend the Spanish security system, inside and outside our borders.

To do this, we have transformed our statutes to allow the possibility of closing collaboration agreements and actively participating in training projects, where the help and support of the president of the OSI Foundation has been unconditional from day one.

Likewise, we develop our statutes to foresee possible legal actions that prolong this exposed design until its last consequences, in the event of an attack on the constitutional system, current legislation or the image of the Spanish security system.

The result of the VUCA analysis, promoted by the presidency, has allowed us to improve personal effectiveness, assiduously get right in decision-making, in the planning of strategies, in the need to weave continuous alliances with constitutional entities and organizations and in global positioning of Politeia.

Clarity, preparation and execution are now more important than ever and decision making and strategic sense come together to give an answer to the new VUCA reality. For this reason, we have taken a step forward to become a useful tool for the Spanish security system, for its promotion and defense.

A new stage of the associative project, where to weave alliances, positively transfer the security situation to the public and gain the capacity to influence decisions or information on the matter, have become important. A reinvention of the original concept of Politeia is towards a clear, objective and effective social utility, where the name of the association itself becomes a reference: a recognized quality brand.

Thus, the goal is an association of security professionals, established in the territories, with the objective knowledge, training, learning and professional background, which can provide direct and professional knowledge of the security situation, from a global and eclectic strategic vision. All this will exemplify the aim of promoting and defending the Spanish security system, and improving its defects, from a proactive strategic vision and at the service of the society from which we all arose.

David Hernández.
President Politeia Spanish Association of Policemen.
Spain.