Palma.The city council decided to reinforce the police force by providing extra agents to handle low priority complaints about the noise during the night so that the the remaining team can focus on more serious problems.
The two new agents are going to be on the beat on Fridays and Saturday's during August and September, the period of time when the police's workload is heaviest, after several complaints from citizens have said that their calls had been ignored.
Security councillor Guillermo Navarro confirmed that ordinary police units can not handle the amount of calls being received, since their main priority is to deal with road accidents, arguments that could lead to fights and alcohol controls. Since the beginning of the Summer season the number of complaints about noise has increased. With the amount of work the police have to do at night it is impossible to answer to all of them, added Navarro.
Reports revealed this week show that between 1 June and 9 August, the authorities received 1'500 calls but only answered to 800 of them. But since the new night service is in place, numbers have improved.
On 2 August, police were contacted 11 times and managed to respond to 10. Last weekend they answered 19 out of 19.
Navarro explained that extra hours will have to be paid to run this service, costing around 6'000 euros, but there are plans already to change the payment of those hours next year.
Whether to keep this new service beyond the Summer months or not is also being analysed.
Fines for excessive noise can reach 150 euros, but if the new service becomes a long term measure those may rise up to 300 euros.
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