The Balearics is the only region of Spain that employs temporary police officers in the local forces.

The Balearics is the only region of Spain that employs temporary police officers in the local forces. | Josep Bagur Gomila

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma21/10/2015 00:00
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The government is to look into the reorganisation of the local police service in the Balearics and to do so via a reform of the law on police coordination. This will have the aim, among others, of focusing on the system of hiring that town halls follow in order to add to their policing levels at times of high demand, which is primarily during the main tourism season.

A commitment to revising the current organisation was made by the director-general for emergencies and the interior Pere Perelló during a meeting with the national government’s delegation in the Balearics. He offered some words of caution, however, given that town halls cannot stabilise staffing levels while the national law on public employment remains in force.

Currently, Perelló pointed out, the Balearics is the only region of Spain that employs temporary police officers in the local forces. This is something that “everyone agrees needs to be changed.” Since 2005, there has been this system of taking on interim officers to add to the full-time forces and it, he said, has provoked “high instability and insecurity among the officers.”
“It’s a problem that all the town halls face. But it is especially acute during the summer in those tourist municipalities with small police forces.”

Perelló took, therefore, the opportunity to impress the matter on the delegation. “They are aware that if the law doesn’t change, we will be unable to arrive at a solution.” A reform of the law on coordination of the local police would, as far as the government is concerned, mean an end to temporary postings in police forces. Budgetary stability under the national law on public employment does, though, inhibit the potential to increase the number of public employees, and these include the police.
Perelló also stressed the fact that in high season “there has been a shortage of between 60 and 70 local police officers to meet the real demands of certain municipalities.”