The Auditoría General de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires unanimously approved a report that detected weaknesses in police attention to cases of family and gender violence. The work examined during 2024 the functioning of the specialized Superintendency and was approved on July 22. Its conclusions show that the existence of protocols and specific departments does not by itself guarantee a comprehensive response when a victim asks for help.
The most direct data affects the initial reception of complaints. The president of the organization, Mariana Gagliardi, reported that 26.2% could not be attended to by the specialized area due to the lack of specific departments. More than one in four reports thus ended up in the hands of staff at local police stations who did not have the proper training to intervene in situations of gender-based violence.
The audit also observed a problem in the emergency circuit. The Superintendency did not receive information about cases entered through 911 directly and promptly. At the same time, its participation was not mandatory in all judicial requests related to this type of violence, so preventive measures could be taken without the advice of specialized professionals.
The basic training of the agents constitutes another critical point. The Instituto Superior de Seguridad Pública did not include specific content on gender-based violence in its curriculum, and the regulations did not clearly define the responsibilities of the Superintendency and its dependencies. That combination leaves gaps both in the preparation of the personnel and in the institutional distribution of the tasks that must be carried out in response to a complaint.
The audit also found that the computer systems of the Buenos Aires City Government and the City Police were not properly integrated. The resulting statistics did not accurately reflect the area's databases and provided unreliable information for planning policies or evaluating results. Although the report acknowledged that there is a specialized structure, with protocols, assistance, and follow-up, it concluded that coordination failures reduce the overall effectiveness.
Gagliardi urged Jorge Macri's administration to correct the deficiencies and summarized the priorities as trained personnel, specialized intervention, and reliable data. The approved document does not yet announce a concrete reform nor does it set an implementation schedule. The next step belongs to the City Government: it must turn the observations of the oversight body into operational changes concerning training, information circulation, and police action.
