If at a fair, party or, for a change of perspective, a major sporting event in your town, you encounter a local police officer with the coat of arms and name of another town, it is almost certain that he is not a tourist in uniform, but rather he is there. with the full weight of his authority. Therefore, if necessary, follow their instructions because, although the scope of action of these agents is limited to the municipality that appears on their shield, in special situations they can act beyond their borders. This is the case of Alcoi, with its Moorish and Christian festivals, or Algeciras, with its June fair, or the Rocío Pilgrimage, among many others. When the arrival of visitors is massive and local law enforcement cannot cope, the law allows foreign agents to be brought in temporarily. It is neither new nor uncommon. However, the law is taken to the limit of what it authorizes when the loan of agents, and it does occur, to alleviate the daily shortage of staff.
The agreements that Granada town councils such as those of Maracena, Iznalloz and Montefrío have signed with the city council of the capital, which will provide local agents not so much for special needs, but to alleviate the shortness of their staff, are at that limit. Of these three, the first was Iznalloz, with 5,142 inhabitants in June 2022, the date of the signing, then both with socialist mayors. The stated objective was to reinforce the staff of local agents at specific times, since, at that time, it only had two people, despite the fact that the norm establishes that every municipality with more than 5,000 inhabitants has a local police force that it must have, In addition, a minimum of five agents. The truth is that, as Miguel Fernández, general secretary of the local union SIPLG and the national USPLBE, explains, two agents from the capital “have been going practically daily until they recently hired two new police officers there.” The round trip transfer has been made in a police vehicle from the capital, although it has not been used there for patrolling.
Fernández sees the transfer of police officers as positive “as long as it is done to make up for the shortcomings of the other municipality at specific times,” he says, “but of course, as a union, we defend the creation of jobs and that the workforce is well adjusted.” Without going into the details of this specific agreement, which is unknown, José Francisco Cano, member of the National Council of UNIJEPOL, National Union of Local Police Chiefs and Directors, believes that the transfer of police officers for specific cases in which the ordinary staff is falls short is a “positive” solution. Of course, he adds, “this is for extraordinary situations, not to solve structural needs of a staff.” All the sources consulted, on the other hand, recognize that the process of incorporating new agents into a city is very long, around two years. The call, the various exams with their deadlines and the stay at the police school prolong the procedure for around those 24 months. In Spain, no institution has an exact figure for the number of local police officers. The most approximate is an estimate by UNIJEPOL based on social security affiliations that establishes the number of these agents at just over 65,000, somewhat below the 70,000 that were estimated in 2017.
The regulation of local police is a regional issue and, therefore, each community has its own standard. Regarding the transfer of local police from one locality to another, the regulations are very similar. Under one name or another, agent lending is based on specific, time-limited needs. In the Andalusian law, for example, if a municipality, “due to temporary insufficiency of services,” requires increasing its local police force, “it may agree with other Andalusian municipalities” which “individually specified” agents will act in its “municipal area by certain time.” This is what happens at the Algeciras fair. Up to 33 local police officers from neighboring La Línea, Los Barrios or Tarifa participated in the security of the Algeciras festival in June 2022 and 2023
Jacinto Muñoz is the Councilor for Citizen Security of Algeciras and explains that “it is a great solution for these specific moments. The local police force is sized for day-to-day operations, but in cases like our fair, we have to keep the city covered and the fair with its thousands of visitors.” At first there were doubts in the city about police coming from outside, he says, but there have never been any problems. This year, with the incorporation of 50 new police officers to his staff, he predicts that significantly fewer of those 33 foreign agents from other years will be needed, if at all.
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The procedure for the loan of local agents requires an agreement between the borrowing city council and the lender that reflects the conditions of the transfer: justification, identification of the possible agents who are transferred, shifts and schedules, hourly salary, etc. Upon arriving at the destination town, the police report to the new mayor and report to him. The destination municipalities will pay the salary as overtime and social security proportional to those hours. Agents who move always do so voluntarily and on their days off.
Something less, approximately 15 agents, is what the Alcoi city council, in Alicante, requires each year for its Moors and Christians Festival. The city of 60,000 inhabitants triples its population every holiday day and the local police force is temporarily scarce, according to its Councilor for Citizen Security, Raúl Llopis, who explains that they close agreements “with neighboring town councils, such as Cocentaina, and others a little more distant, like Finestrat, Benidorm or Villena”.
In Maracena, with 22,275, the need for the agreement is different, it is not the holidays. José Antonio Quesada (Vox), Councilor for Citizen Security, explained in a municipal plenary session a few days ago that the city has 35 local police officers although “we have 22 and four of them are on leave, so we have 17 left.” The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) considers that a reasonable average is one local police officer for every 667 inhabitants, hence the Quesada average. And this shortage of staff is the reason for the agent transfer agreement with the capital, which 21 of the city's 22 local police officers have complained about in a recent statement. And also, says an agent who speaks on behalf of his colleagues, “they actually want to punish us by taking away the overtime, which we have always been doing without problems, to give it to the police in the capital.” With other problems with his police staff, the mayor has preferred not to make statements at this time. In any case, soon, they will walk around the city more frequently than the “temporary” and “for a certain period of time” that the law says.