This article gives an analysis of the overall structure of the police system created by current law and policy, including the unification of the plainclothes and uniformed branches of the national police, and the continuing separate existence of the paramilitary Civil Guard. Problems of demarcation and coordination between them, and between them and the new 'autonomous' regional police forces, created as a political response to Basque and Catalan nationalism, are discussed as are the functions of both regional and traditional municipal forces. A common ethical code for all police forces, trade union rights, disciplinary codes, and the development of a separate Judicial Police are also covered. (Publisher abstract)