Application of Blockchain Technology in a Prototype for Complaint Management at Family Police Stations: A Case Study of Fusagasugá, Colombia

Abstract

In the public sector, administrative procedures generate case files that are traditionally stored in physical archives or relational databases. Ensuring the authenticity, reliability, and integrity of these records is critical to achieving the mission of Colombian Family Police Stations (Comisarías de Familia), which protect and restore the rights of family members affected by intra-family violence. Nevertheless, conventional information systems can be vulnerable to falsification, unauthorized modification, and loss of traceability. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a prototype that integrates blockchain technology — through smart contracts deployed on Ethereum — with a centralized microservices architecture to manage the registration and follow-up of complaints at the Family Police Station of Fusagasugá, Colombia. The methodology combined a qualitative deductive approach with Design Thinking and Business Process Management (BPM/BPMN) for the identification and modeling of processes, followed by agile software-engineering practices for construction. The prototype was tested by staff members of the Family Police Station through a controlled simulation using fictitious cases, and their perceptions were captured through a structured survey. Results indicate that 100% of participants considered that the prototype can validate the authenticity of documents, 75% perceived that blockchain-based public disclosure benefits stakeholders, and 75% agreed that the prototype improves complaint management. The study contributes a replicable open-source reference architecture for integrating permissionless blockchain with legacy public-sector workflows under Colombian archival regulations.