Jaume García Valls, is the first commissioner of the Mossos d’Esquadra to retire at the age of 65 after 40 years of service.
After so many years, he has been a leading figure in the history of the police in Catalonia.
As a member of the first promotion of the Catalan police force called in 1983, he had the opportunity to participate in the creation of a new police force.
During his career in the Mossos, Garcia Valls went through various responsibilities in the territory, including the internal affairs division, also known as the “police within the police”.
This division, which the new decree on the structure of the Mossos will turn into a police station, is in charge of investigating police colleagues in cases of irregularities.
Garcia Valls defends the work of this division, assuring that the extremely complex investigations they carry out have to do with the high ratings that citizens give the Catalan police.
Retirement of the first commissioner: a milestone in history
Garcia Valls’ retirement marks a milestone in the history of the Mossos d’Esquadra, as he is the first commissioner to leave the uniform at the age limit.
This year will also see the retirement of three other Catalan police commissioners, Xavier Creus, Josep Milán and Joan Martínez Roma.
The retirement of these four commissioners, who have served the Catalan police for decades, marks a time of transition for the force, which will have to find new leaders to take it into the future.
Who are the Mossos d’Esquadra?
They are the autonomous police of Catalonia. They were founded in 1983. It is currently made up of some 17,000 police officers.
The Mossos corps has scales that are divided into different ranks according to command and rank.
The first scale we find is the basic scale, which is made up of the mosso, caporal and sergeant.
The mosso are the rank-and-file police officers who are in charge of patrols, controls and customer service.
The caporales, on the other hand, have the function of supervising and coordinating the group of mosso working in their area.
Finally, the sergeants are in charge of the management and coordination of the caporal group.
The executive scale includes inspectors, who are in charge of different areas. These professionals supervise and coordinate the work of the sergeants, corporals and mosso in their area of work.
The upper echelon is made up of the intendant and the commissioner. The quartermaster is in command of divisions, regions and/or areas, while the commissioner is in command of general commissariats and divisions/regions.
It is important to note that the differences between these two ranks are to be found, among others, in their scope of responsibility.
They use badges that allow the rank of each agent to be easily identified.
