Abstract
While it is undisputed that a police
officer can resort to the use of force to accomplish lawful objectives, the question remains: is he obliged to do so? To what extent is the police officer criminally liable if by refusing to use force he fails to prevent a crime? Can a criminal law system legitimately impose a duty of protection whose compliance may require, in an extreme situation, the killing of a citizen? This paper aims to answer these three questions. To this end, I first examine the
rationale and limits of the protection duties of police officers in the Spanish legal system. Next, I address the problem of the legal-criminal nature of the police
officer's duty to protect individuals against crimes: is it a duty of guarantor or a mere duty to carry out so-called "easy rescues" (Arts. 412.3 and 450 CP)? The paper concludes by examining the legitimacy of a
duty to protect which may require the use of lethal force.
