Santiago Casares Quiroga greeting a group of Assault Guards

The Provisional Government undertook a reorganization of the police with the goal of creating a republican force, one that was well-trained, identified with the new regime, and characterized by a more moderate use of violence. This did not require any wholesale changes to the police that had served the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. Only some thirty men were dismissed for having stood out in repression of opponents to the monarchy.

The Assault Guard was the body that best represented the Republican ideal. This innovative new anti-riot force specialized in the use of non-lethal techniques and equipment, with their truncheons and pistols replacing the sabres and rifles used by the Civil Guard. Posted to provincial capitals and large cities, its exponential growth, from 6,571 to 17,660 men in three years was evidence of its importance to the government.

Starting in 1932, the Assault Guard, armed with heavy weapons, also took part in counterinsurgency operations. This militarization became clear in the ceremony in Madrid’s Retiro Park on 13 August honouring its defeat of the military rebellion led by General Sanjurjo. In the photograph, we see Interior Minister Santiago Casares Quiroga and undersecretary Carlos Esplá congratulating some of the policemen who had been wounded. The ceremony concluded with a parade in which the Assault Guards marched with their rifles over their shoulders.

Republican reforms ignored the non-uniformed police. The force now called the Investigation and Vigilance Corps grew from fewer than 300 men in 1931 to 3,777 in 1934, but the only substantial change was the elimination from the criminal identification records of the files of Republican and Socialist militants complied during the monarchy.

Reforming the Civil Guard had profound administrative and political implications. Azaña’s governments did not alter their military methods or end the use of mausers and sables, although it did strengthen its subordination to civilian power. In the aftermath of the “Sanjurjada”, the force was put under the sole control of the Interior ministry and its traditional second line of reporting to the Ministry of War terminated. Its General Directorate was dissolved and replaced by a General Inspectorate, which lost some of the former’s areas of responsibility to a new sections composed solely of civilians. The Carabineros experienced similar changes, coming under the sole control of the Ministry of Finance. The final point in the reduction of the Civil Guard’s autonomy was the establishment of a Technical Secretariat to coordinate its operations with those of the police.

SVM