fight of the weekend on July 16 at the festival of Los Campitos, in Santa Cruz of Tenerife, which ended with a person in critical condition due to a bottle blow; the suspension of the Valleseco party due to the numerous brawls, and the concert offered by a totally naked man in the middle of the commercial street of the island capital have one element in common: the lack of agents of the Local police. The three cases are the reflection of a chronicle announced -and denounced on countless occasions- by the CSIF union, which has been alerting the Chicharrero City Council and its councilor for the Security Area, Evelyn Alonso, considered a turncoat by her Ciudadanos party, about the organization of the police service for this summer, with a workforce that is already poor and that has also been decimated by the agents’ vacations.
In fact, the head of the union, Jesús Illada, stated at the beginning of July that, given the lack of police, Santa Cruz de Tenerife would be “an insecure city this summer”. The events that occur in the following weekends begin to validate his theory.
Illada recalled that since 2019, when the Local Police staff was drastically reduced for various reasons, including the advancement of the retirement age, it became necessary to have extra personnel in the months of July, August and September. In 2021, 12 policemen and two managers joined the device on weekends. In previous years there was a summer team of 18 people from Unipol, unit dissolved precisely in 2021.
“This planning gave good results, above all, to deal with the flow of people who access the beaches of the municipality, the leisure nights in the capital of Tenerife or the events organized during the weekends,” the CSIF argued in a statement. of press. But this season he has changed his mind. To the surprise of the union, it has been decided to make up for absences with six interns, that they have to fulfill their hours until the month of October. From the City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife they clarify to the Canary Islands Now that “Places are not filled with trainees”.
Organization of the police service
This newspaper has had access to the document that establishes the reorganization of the police service for this summer in the capital of Tenerife, it specifies that the campaign would be reinforced with volunteer personnel, complying with rest periods.
Thus, the ordinary service would be reinforced on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays in the morning and afternoon with ten agents and two managers from 08:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. This weekend service would serve, preferentially, the Anaga area and the beaches of the municipality.
In this sense, CSIF points out that the six police trainees have night shifts on Fridays and Saturdays. “We claim 12 agents and two managers at those times, like last year, especially because of the number of parties there are.”
As for the attestation service, an agent would be appointed from Monday to Saturday. This service would be reinforced with an officer if necessary. As for the commands of the different services, they reinforce at the rate of two commands in the morning shift and on Friday and Saturday night with one command.
“When the circumstances of the service require it, the reinforcement will be complemented with personnel from the Canine Guides Group,” the document states.
A police officer and an agent in training at the festival of Los Campitos
Thus, on July 16, only two patrols guarded the Valleseco festival, previously covered by 18 Unipol agents. “The numerous brawls caused the entire police service to be there, until the police chief decided to suspend the party due to the serious risk to people’s lives,” Illada shared with Canarias Ahora.
Meanwhile, at the Los Campitos dance “there were no police”, only a patrol made up of an agent and a practitioner had the mission of frequenting the place and checking the fencing. That led to no one being able to prevent the confrontation that left a 30-year-old man in the hospital in serious condition. Despite everything, the agents managed to arrest the aggressor at dawn and avoid a greater evil when they restrained several people, apparently relatives of the wounded man, who tried to hit the detainee.
The lack of agents “puts the physical integrity of the police at serious risk in this period, in addition to not being able to offer an adequate response to the demands that citizens demand,” argued Jesús Illada in a letter addressed to Evelyn Alonso.
A few hours before these events, in the middle of Calle Castillo, a naked man gave a guitar concert, shocking passers-by who walked through this important commercial area of the island capital. “Before there was always an agent there. The individual was playing like that the whole session, no police showed up. She left when he finished his show, ”confessed the union delegate.
In the end, there were only nine patrols available, when by law, between Monday and Thursday, there are six, “only three more on a weekend with two festivals, in a city like Santa Cruz and in the middle of summer,” he stressed.
Decrease in service quality and risk for practitioners
Jesús Illada insists that “this daily service has been reinforced with more trainees than actual officers, producing a Considerable decline in the quality of the public citizen security servicein addition to the unnecessary exposure of new agents in extreme situations where their appointment as career officials may be compromised”.
“From CSIF Canarias we do not understand how in the face of the lack of troops, currently 300, the services are not organized with optimization and objectivity. The current situation makes it unfeasible to be able to meet the demands of citizens, and the use of trainees only worsens the situation”, they pointed out.
Letter addressed to Evelyn Alonso
The union delegate made it clear in a letter sent this Monday, July 18, to the councilor of the Security and Mobility Area of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council, that during the night service on Friday and Saturday during the summer period, “the Headquarters has chosen to reinforce the ordinary service during those specific shifts with six police officers in training period, and who therefore have not completed their training period, without having yet been declared fit to occupy a position as property as local police in this Corporation ” .
“This reinforcement is clearly insufficient to guarantee a quality public service, in addition to not being able to guarantee the safety of the policemen who work during that night shift,” the letter continues.
It should also be noted that in this 2022 the restrictions on mass events have been eliminated, including festivals, popular parties or club capacity. “Even so, the night reinforcement increases with only six local police applicants.”
For all of the above, “I proceed and request that you consider this document as submitted, admit it and kindly request the corresponding service, the reinforcement of police officers during the shifts described,” Illada concluded, hoping that on this occasion his notice would not fall on deaf ears.
