The Independent and Civil Service Central Union (CSIF) believes that the appointment of Tacoronte’s Local Police Chief, Gabriel Medina, is “another historical farce without legal basis that continues to violate the rights of employees”. In a statement, they refer to it as “an objective fact that strays from legality” and explain that he “has been hand-picked since 2016”, a “irregular situation that continues knowingly perpetuating its injustice”.
The local police union announced last month that it is considering filing a complaint against the mayor and the Local Police councillor for alleged misconduct because earlier this year, through a decree, they “established an alternation procedure” in the police chief position, “an irregularity” for which “Medina was supposed to alternate the position with another officer (…), whose appointment was recently annulled by municipal technical services”. The technical report in question “nullifies the dismissal decrees and appointments made and rewinds the actions to the moment before their issuance”. This means that the person who held the position for seven years “has returned to their position”, defended the local police chiefs’ union in their note.
Now, CSIF “reopens a battle started by the Tacoronte Local Police Chief, completely refuting him for the campaign that has been initiated from his union”, they point out in a press release. They also state that “the City Council, far from being concerned with providing the population with local police officers to combat the increasing insecurity in the municipality, has focused on issues such as the increase in salaries for their politicians as soon as they took office, neglecting issues such as professionalizing and respecting access to public employment for such an important position as the Local Police chief, or updating the conditions of local police officers that leave the municipality with historically low staff levels”.
Further complaints
Considering that the appointment of the current Local Police Chief in 2016 involves a “nullity defect” that remains unresolved, the union announces that they are “working on the final steps to file the relevant lawsuits”, and they do not rule out “taking legal action” against the current police chief to reclaim “the extra payments received over the years”, they add.
The Independent and Civil Service Central Union emphasizes that his appointment eight years ago was made without fulfilling the equality of merits and capacity procedure and without applying the existing “framework agreement” of a rotating leadership among the three officers at the time. The union recalls that since then, over 25% of the police force has left the municipality and attributes to him the “ability to create unrest” through disciplinary proceedings or the imposition of extraordinary duties. They also note that there has been an officer in the team for over 20 years not involved in any “illegal administrative situation”.
The municipal government previously defended its decree of alternation in the police chief position and stated that the model approved months ago, established to generate equal conditions through rotation in the position of acting chief for periods of five months, “had the technical endorsement of the City Council at all times, through favourable reports”.
