Small town police link up

THE Local Police in 32 Balearic municipalities with less than 7,500 people will now be better coordinated with the emergency 112 service. An agreement was signed whereby officers will be in contact with a telephone terminal with a software application that will allow tracking incidents in real-time.

This initiative will “enhance the security of those municipalities with limited resources,” said Councillor Pilar Costa.

“Emergency care will be every day of the year, 24 hours a day.”

This will benefit around 100,000 people altogether. President Fracesc Antich stressed the importance of “unifying efforts among the institutions.”

“A more efficient service needs to be put in place for when the time comes that there will be more demands from citizens.”

While 30 of the municipalities are in Mallorca, one is also in Menorca and the other in Ibiza.

The mayors of the municipitalities stress that this initiative is a ‘step forward’, although many also pointed out that the main security deficit is the lack of a local police service during the day.

“We could do with some kind of joint police that operates 24 hours a day,” said Petra Mayor Caterina Mas, whose town of 2,800 inhabitants only has two police officers.

Esporles Mayor Miquel Ensenyat pointed out that the town halls do not have the funds to offer a 24 hour service, although added that they can count on the support of the Guardia Civil.