Yesenia could not hold back her tears when she remembered the long road that took her yesterday to be one of the 30 new Local Police officers who received their appointment from the mayor. At 40 years old, and after six years of preparing to finally obtain a Local Police position, once she was appointed, all her emotions came out suddenly. “It has been very hard, a lot of sacrifice to get here,” she said, looking towards the audience where her family was, from whom she has received “total support.” “The feeling is very gratifying, of satisfaction for having achieved my goal,” she added more serenely. She is one of the six women who have managed to overcome the contest-opposition and the entire training process along with the rest of her colleagues.
The Plenary Hall of the Santa Cruz City Council hosted the promotion, which, perhaps, has taken longer to incorporate with a pandemic involved and saving a challenge. Three years have taken the agents to reach yesterday’s time, a time that, from the Department of Human Resources, is expected to be much less in the next call. “In the first quarter of 2023, the tests will begin to cover the next 30 places that have already been called,” said the person in charge of the area, Purificación Dávila. If everything goes as expected, “in September they would already be entering the academy,” added the mayor of Security, Evelyn Alonso. And it is that in this new call the development test has been eliminated, which becomes a test type, which will save a lot of time in corrections and it will be possible to go faster.
Also next year it is expected to be able to convene a dozen more places corresponding to the replacement quota. “We are not going to wait to accumulate processes, as places are released for retirement or other reasons, we are going to call them,” said Dávila. With the incorporation of these new agents, the total number of Local Police reaches 332.
Along with Yesenia, another woman who also received her appointment yesterday was Noelia. At 36, she had been preparing to be a Local Police for four years.
He says that he always wanted to dedicate himself to that, but it was not until he turned 30 that he seriously began to prepare. “My grandfather was a Civil Guard, so I always liked this.” Her parents, her sister and her partner have all supported her.
Ilya is another of the agents who achieved his dream yesterday. “It has been very emotional, this is what I have always wanted,” he said, still nervous after the appointment. While the calls arrived, he studied Social Work first, and Law later. “I have left my profession as a lawyer to serve others”, he recounted with a broad smile.
Lack of agents
And it is that, despite the incorporation of these thirty agents, and those planned for 2023, the lack of local police in Santa Cruz continues to be a constant, and there are still a hundred. A deficiency that the PSOE denounced yesterday, which made known the last instruction given to the agents on duty on the Rastro de Santa Cruz. In it you can read that six agents will be assigned to guarantee security in the market.
Also in the same order it is specified that “if there are not enough agents to meet other requirements, they will be referred through 112 so that they can be attended by other police forces.” “There is no doubt that security at any event -with a certain influx- is necessary, but making the security of an entire municipality subject to that is very serious,” said the socialist mayor, Florentino Guzmán Plasencia.
