Playa de Palma gets more local police

Joan Collins
THE local police operating on the Playa de Palma will be reinforced this Summer, bring their total to 149 officers in all, with the aim of giving a better level of citizen safety during the high tourist season. The Mayor of Palma, Catalina Cirer; the councillor for Citizen Security, Alvaro Gijon; and the Chief Commissioner of the Local Police Force, Nicolas Herrero, yesterday announced the reinforcement of this service at the Municipal Police Office situated in the Plaza de Las Maravillas in the Playa de Palma. This reinforcement, which started on May 15 and will go on until October 31, will mean an addition of nearly 100 officers to those who work in this area during the Winter months. The Playa de Palma will have foot patrols, motorised and mounted patrols, six officers from the Green Patrol, another six from the Immediate Intervention Unit and 25 tourist police. Catalina Cirer said that the council had made “a special effort to guarantee the safety of residents and tourists in this area, which has more than 40'000 hotel places”. She stressed the importance of coordinating the actions of the different police forces and said that the responsibility for vigilance on the part of the Playa de Palma which is in Llucmajor belongs to the Guardia Civil. Nicolas Herrero said that security on the Playa de Palma is also controlled using eight video cameras, installed at different points, which transmit information to both the local and national police. Herrero added that the main functions of the officers will be to control the traffic on the sea front, watch for illegal adminstrative activities, among which will be the closing hours of the bars, and trying to stop petty criminals such as card sharps and pickpockets. The Chief Commissioner of the Local Police Force confirmed that the crime rate in the Playa de Palma is “of low intensity”, and added that the most common crime is “the sneak thief who commits petty theft and who is especially active at night”.