With incidents of bad and rowdy behaviour on the increase and residents calling for more police perhaps the time has come to give the local forces of law and order a bit of a shakeup.
Majorca has three police forces; local police responsible for lesser crimes and parking offences, the National Police who are responsible for policing in urban areas and the Guardia Civil who are charged with safeguarding the law in rural areas.
Three forces and one mission; to keep residents and tourists safe. Now, the Guardia Civil often seem to be stretched because their “rural area patch” also covers some of the big tourist resorts ranging from Magalluf to the Llucmajor end of the Playa de Palma. Wouldn´t it be an idea to bring all the forces together under one unified command?
The Guardia Civil should be able to call on their colleagues in the National Police to help them out and local police from other municipalities could support them. Each municipality on the island (there are more than 50) have their own local police force ranging in some cases from just two offices to hundreds in Palma.
A unified structure would mean that there are more officers available at any one time especially if they were allowed to “cross the border” and operate in other municipalities. It is also amazing that a resort such as Magalluf is classed as a “rural area” in police terms. Perhaps a shakeup is needed to ensure that limited police resources work at their maximum.