Armed Police Corps

This article is about the former Spanish urban police force. For other law enforcement agencies named "armed police", see Armed Police (disambiguation).
Armed Police
Cuerpo de Policía Armada y de Tráfico
Common namePolicía Armada
AbbreviationFPA
Agency overview
Formed3 August 1939
Preceding agency
Dissolved4 December 1978
Superseding agencyCuerpo Nacional de Policía
Employees20,000 est. 1968
Jurisdictional structure
National agencyFrancoist Spain
Operations jurisdictionFrancoist Spain
Governing bodyMinistry of Governance
General nature
Operational structure
Overseen byDirectorate General of Security [es]
HeadquartersMadrid
Parent agencySpanish Armed Forces (Francoist period)
Visit of Ramón Serrano Suñer (second from left) to the headquarters of the LSSAH in Berlin-Lichterfelde, accompanied by Antonio Sagardía Ramos (second from right) and Heinrich Himmler (first from right), 1940.
Defile of Guardia Civil and Policía Armada members in San Sebastián, 1942.
Detail of the uniform of a Policía Armada member.

The Policía Armada (English: Armed Police), conventional long names Cuerpo de Policía Armada y de Tráfico (English: Armed and Traffic Police Corps) and Fuerzas de Policía Armada (English: Armed Police Forces), —popularly known as los grises (English: the grey ones) owing to the color of their uniforms— was an armed urban police force of Spain established by the Francoist regime in 1939 to enforce the repression of all opposition to the regime. Its mission was "total and permanent vigilance, as well as repression when deemed necessary."[1]

The first commander of the Policía Armada was General Antonio Sagardía Ramos. In its first years of operation the corps was inadequately equipped in armament and vehicles but this situation would be steadily straightened out.[2]: 74 

  1. ^ ... vigilancia total y permanente, así como de represión cuando fuera necesario... "Los grises vuelven a España".
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference aguilar1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).