The Palma police green patrol is a division of the local force that deals with clubs, bars and similar - the regulations pertaining to different types of establishment and related issues such as disturbances on the streets.
Between June and August, the green patrol opened 227 files for different infractions. Over a summer marked by conflicts between residents and establishments, especially in Santa Catalina and La Lonja, the patrol is said to have intensified its actions to monitor compliance with municipal ordinance.
Almost a hundred of these files were for illegal occupation of the public way, which basically means exceeding permitted terrace space. This was an issue in Santa Catalina in particular. Others included music outside permitted hours (41 files) and serving alcohol to be consumed on the public way (31).
But although the town hall says that there was an intensification of action, residents complained of a lack of police to control disturbances in the main nightlife areas, especially at weekends. One resident maintains that on one night in the middle of August, when there was a delay in responding to a complaint, officers themselves admitted that there was only one unit from within the green patrol for the whole of Palma.
The public safety department at the town hall responded to this by saying: "We cannot give data on how many units there are in operation, nor how many officers are available, for security reasons."