The trade union organizations with representation in the Local Police of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (CSIF, Asipal, and CC.OO.), denounce that they are “overwhelmed” by the huge increase in citizen demands in terms of security during the weekends. “The latest events that have taken place in the downtown areas of the city show the evident lack of troops and foresight on the part of the city council. We are concerned about the real inability to deal with the acts of vandalism that occur repeatedly in the lower area of the capital, since it is unfeasible with the evident lack of troops” declare the union delegates.
In addition, they denounce that the declarations of the Councilor for Security in different media, where he spoke of establishing an extraordinary service in the conflictive zones, finally “is not going to take place” as far as the Local Police are concerned. They also criticize Alonso’s statements in which she alludes to the status of foreigners of some minors who participate in the brawls, “with which we cannot disagree more. The violence cannot be related to the country from which it comes, much less when in the reality of the problem that concerns us, it is not like that”.
For the unions, “the person in charge of security evades the problem pointed out to other administrations by referring to the condition of foreigners, to pass the ball to the State, when the problem is municipal”, add the unions.
The delegates speak of a “black future” if the capacity of the agents continues to be reduced in terms of the number of troops, with the same number of agents as in 1983. This lack of agents affects the security of the police officers themselves, as well as in
reconciling family and work, withdrawing permits requested on weekends.
‘At the beginning of the year two thousand, planning was being carried out regarding the replacement of
rate of local police, which was giving excellent results. This strategy was
abandoned, with the disastrous result of today”.
