The workers who manage the so -called antimaltrate bracelets warned of the failures they were detecting after the change of company from the beginning. This is detailed by an operator that follows at the control center for telematic removal measures (Comet) and another that has recently left the service, in which, both say, they continue to produce technical errors today “which were constantly transferred to those responsible” of the project and of which “the Government delegation against gender violence” of the Ministry of Equality last year, of the Ministry of Equality last year.
“The operators were from the beginning of the change of company warning of the failures,” explains one of them, which points to breakdowns that have to do with the geolocation of the devices that the men brought accused of sexual assault or of mistreating their partners or ex -partners, or also of “signs that are late” to comet. From there the operators work – the majority are women – who manage alerts and communication with victim and aggressor with the aim of controlling the restraining order imposed by court order. Currently, 4,515 men are monitored in this way.
The ones known as antimaltrate bracelets are in the center of today since last week, when it was known that a computer error caused a data vacuum that led to “acquittals and dismissals” for brokenness of protection orders, according to the Prosecutor's Office in its annual report. It happened following the change of the company awarded the service, which passed from Telefónica to a Vodafone and Securitas Security Spain in October 2023, although in practice it was at the beginning of 2024 when the new system began to function and, according to the workers, to “give failures”: “the previous one was not perfect, but it did not just function as it should,” says the employee with whom he could speak.
Position failures and alerts
The incidents alerted three times to equality the General Council of the Judiciary earlier this year, according to the agency this Monday without detailing what the failures were. The operators suggest that several of them have to do with the geopositioning: “GPS positions that were not real, frozen positions or impossible position jumps. For example, you can see the position of an aggressor at one point already two minutes at another point several kilometers away,” explains the operator. Also “signs that are late” that have made “what calls from victims say that the device has been pidded by the signal and that it does it throughout the conversation or hanging.”
Comet's extrabajadora places the turning point in the modification of the adjudication of companies, with which “everything changed”, from the devices, which according to the specifications became acquired by the Ministry of Equality, to the platform from which the entire system is managed. “The platform was caught and did not load. Maybe a user and it had to be told to wait a moment until you could find it in the system. On the other hand, the bracelets before worked with radiofrequency and now by Bluetooth, which generates more easily false signs,” says the exoperaria, which claims to have transferred “in May or June” of 2024 with other colleagues with other partners this types of this type of partners. incidents to those responsible.
According to the account of both, the complaints began to become increasingly generalized throughout the year 2024. The denounced failures reached the Government delegation against gender violence and then began to produce meetings between the agency of the Ministry of Equality, representatives of the workers and companies, the workers affirm, which place the first of the meetings on December 18 of last year and the last one in May.
The department led by Ana Redondo acknowledges that he was aware of the errors and that although in the contract “figure that there must be monthly evaluation meetings”, when they knew the incidents “a monitoring plan with weekly meetings was established”, Ana Requena reports. “We have been on top to see how they evolved and that they were solved,” they support Eldiario.es sources from the Ministry, which suggest that the service is currently providing “with reasonable quality” and allude to the new devices “have more benefits than the previous ones.” In the contract that will tender equality “in a few months” because the current one expires, “technical improvements will be included and will be broader,” they add.
“They are not specific errors”
“It has improved a lot. The platform is no longer so slow and we have less GPS jumps than those at the beginning. If the delegation had not learned, I think these improvements would not have happened, but several of the failures continue to happen,” says the worker who, even so, responsible for equality “as an organism that has to ensure because things are fulfilled.” “Today, after so long, things still do not work as expected of a service that attends to victims of gender violence. We are talking about something very delicate and are not minority or punctual errors, but have conditioned everything,” completes the former comet's exemple.
To questions from eldiario.es, Vodafone, who is the one in charge of the technical part of the service – securitas manages Comet's resources – defends the opposite and even points to an improvement of technology. “The new one works on the networks of the three operators (if one fails to connect to another automatically), it has GPS and connects to any active Wifi without the need for password. In addition, it sends a geopositioning signal every 15 seconds, sends alerts by proximity, due to manipulation of the device, due to lack of battery… ”, says a company spokesman.
The Ministry of Equality is in the center of the controversy since the Prosecutor's Office included in its annual report that the transition between companies had caused “a lot of acquittals and dismissals” because there was a temporary loss of data. This made some courts could not count on the position of men accused of breaking remote orders by judging them for this reason. The Public Ministry then clarified his words and assured that the cases were “punctual” while the department of Ana Redondo has defended at all times that the ruling “is already solved” and that the bracelets “did not stop working at any time.” “He has not involved any exit or release of virtually any person,” said the head of Equality.
The issue has been climbing with the passing of the days to the point that the Popular Party has requested the reprobation of the minister in the Congress and has taken the opportunity to compare the failures of the bracelets with “the writing of the law of the only one is yes”, in the words of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Feminist organizations and that work with victims of gender violence such as Fundación Mujeres regret, on the other hand, that from some sectors they are “doubting the effectiveness” of the “generally” bracelets and put the focus on the effects that this has for the victims themselves. A precaution and concern that the workers consulted by eldiario.es also move, who are concerned about how political and media treatment “is impacting the women themselves.”
“We want to remind all political groups that violence against women must be an issue that is addressed in a responsible manner and outside the noise of partisan and electoral fray,” says Fundación Women in a statement, in which, at the same time, it asks for “transparency” to the Ministry of Equality “Transparency”: “Fatates to policies against gender violence are not defended by hiding the problems and failures Accounts, ”says the organization, which describes the bracelets as“ one of the safest protection mechanisms ”.