The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Trail was left without extraordinary police support yesterday as a result of a “sit-in” executed by twelve municipal officers and the command assigned to the volunteer operational group. This special operation has been focused on ensuring adherence to the municipal ordinance at the request of the City Council for the past several months.
The lack of these officers resulted in the Rastro proceeding without any police oversight. The volunteer officers opted out of the reinforcement operation in protest against the directives issued by the acting commissioner, who, according to the union, has displayed a lack of respect for the rights of the duty-bound officers. This has compromised their ability to balance work and family commitments. CSIF.
Jesús Illada, the union representative for Santa Cruz Local Police, stated that “we officers are unwilling to sacrifice our free time under these circumstances, as many of us have families and lives beyond our jobs. For this reason, the volunteer officers scheduled for the extra duty in the Rastro ultimately chose not to participate, leaving the assigned group from the morning shift to manage the situation, albeit only to oversee traffic access externally.”
Illada further noted that, “months prior, a police operation was tasked with managing access to the market. However, following complaints about non-compliance with municipal regulations from certain vendors and the discovery of counterfeit products on sale, the council requested an additional police presence, which has been maintained until now.”
The CSIF believes the issue stems from “the officers being exhausted by the current acting commissioner’s tendency to issue commands he hasn’t even reviewed, alongside unpredictable alterations to reinforcement schedules. Officers are often notified at the last minute, making it impossible to plan their free time or family activities, as they never know whether they’ll be required to work overtime, which is taken from their personal time, something no one should be compelled to do.”
