Police Algorithm Said Woman Faces 'Medium' Risk, She Was Killed Weeks Later

A Spanish woman was classified as "medium" risk by a police algorithm when she reported threats and past violence by her former partner. Three weeks later, she was killed, allegedly by the same man.

In January, Lina reported her ex-partner to the police for threatening her and raising his hand as if to strike. The officers logged her case into VioGen - an algorithm-based system for assessing gender violence risk, introduced by the Spanish ministry.

VioGen, used by law enforcement across the country, posed 35 questions: about the history and intensity of the abuse, the man's access to weapons, his mental health, and whether Lina had left the relationship. The system placed her in the "medium" risk category - a label that set the timeline for police follow-up at 30 days.

Before that deadline arrived, Ms Lina was dead.

According to her family, her ex used a key to enter her home, where a fire soon broke out. While her children, mother, and the man escaped, Lina did not survive. Her 11-year-old son reportedly told police it was his father who killed her. He was subsequently arrested.

"There were violent episodes - she was scared," recalled Ms Lina's cousin, Daniel, to the BBC.

Before her death, Ms Lina had asked a specialist gender violence court in Malaga for a restraining order. She wanted her ex-partner barred at her residence. The court denied her request.

"Lina wanted to change the locks at her home, so she could live peacefully with her children," Mr Daniel added.

VioGen is a tool developed by Spanish police and academics which is tightly woven into police protocol unlike systems in other countries, where officers rely more heavily on manual risk assessments. In the UK, for example, tools like DASH or DARA are used as checklists rather than algorithms.

Chief Inspector Isabel Espejo, head of the National Police's family and women's unit in Malaga, defended the system: "It helps us follow each victim's case very precisely." 

She said her officers handle about 10 gender violence reports daily, and that VioGen flags around 9 or 10 women each month as "extreme" risk, a classification that triggers around-the-clock police protection.

Still, Ms Espejo admitted that something clearly failed in Ms Lina's case. "I'm not going to say VioGen doesn't fail - it does. But this wasn't the trigger that led to this woman's murder. The only guilty party is the person who killed Lina. Total security just doesn't exist."

Had Ms Lina been marked "high" risk, she would have received police follow-up within a week - potentially changing the outcome.