Promotion processes of police officers: Is there a violation of constitutional rights in the qualification process?

Abstract

The objective of this investigation was to determine the violation of the constitutional rights of legal security, due process, work, formal equality, and non-discrimination towards police officers in the qualification process for promotion to the next higher grade within the National Police of Ecuador. It was a mixed, documentary and field study, using legal hermeneutic and analytical-synthetic methods. The techniques were documentary analysis of six protection action processes and a survey applied to a non-probabilistic random convenience sample of thirty-eight police officers. Among the results, it was found that, although promotions face challenges due to insufficient vacancies for the number of applicants, vacancies due to termination in some cases are not granted to those who are pending promotion. In addition, there were processes where subjective and discretionary criteria were applied by the competent authorities in promotions. For this reason, the constitutional judges have ordered in various protection actions the application of articles 504 and 140 of the Professional Career Regulations for Police Servants (2021) so that vacancies due to dismissals are granted to already promoted servers, and compliance with general aspect ratings. It is concluded that the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court recognizes the violation of rights claimed in a partial manner, without reflecting decisions with a uniform criterion for analogous causes, which is why it is necessary to establish jurisprudence with erga omnes effect for similar.