SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 11 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Unified Police Union has asked to “double” the troops that are destined for Galicia according to the last call of the body, which estimates to cover 129 of the 400 vacancies, for which the SUP claims 223, since it denounces a deficit of 447 agents. The general secretary of the union in Galicia, Roberto González, offered a press conference this Friday to “report” the situation in which the body is found in the community. Along with him, the four provincial secretaries of the SUP have appeared.
One of the main problems, he stressed, is that the catalog of professionals “is obsolete”. “It has not changed in 15 years and, in that time, society, the typology of crimes and the police themselves have changed. It should adapt to reality delinquentlabor and the police stations themselves”, he assured.
Gonzalez has also pointed out that crimes are becoming “more complex”to which is added the fight against sexist violence -since 2019 there have been no vacancies for the unit specialized in this type of crime-, cybercrimes and the Holy Year 2022. Regarding this last aspect, although they have recognized that in Santiago “the squares are covered”, they do not consider them “enough” given the magnitude of the event and that, as they recall, “We remain on a level four anti-terrorism alert.”
Criticism of the delegation and leadership
Thus, the union proposes some solutions that, as it has indicated, have already facilitated both the Superior Police Headquarters and the Government Delegation, against which they have poured harsh criticism. “Communication with the delegate is null. We have not had a single meeting and this has never happened to us. We have never had closed doors like now, neither with the PSOE nor with the PP,” González asserted.
However, also have censored the behavior of the Headquarters, currently “headless” and with the provincial commissioner of Lugo “assuming” the leadership of Galicia and that of the province of A Coruña. In addition, they have highlighted that, as they are people from outside Galicia who come to the community for a limited time -usually less than a year-, “lack of involvement in the projects”.
This situation “slows down” certain bureaucratic procedures and even causes that, at certain times, “the agents themselves do not know who to turn to”. They point out, for example, that in A Coruña there is no provincial commissioner; “She is assigned but has not come to take office.”
SUP Proposals
Regarding the solutions, in addition to a greater coverage of vacancies in the general contest of merits, they ask “reform” the vacancy calendar and the creation of a work table that allows to change the situation. “Last year 143 agents were assigned, this year 129. Despite the situation, places are even reduced,” he insisted.
They also request provisions for extraordinary services and integrate the more than 100 places previously known as secondary activity to supplement the activity in the courts, “a task that is now carried out by the Civil Guard but which by territorial scope, should be carried out by the Police”.
Cybercrime
However, one of the aspects that most worries to the union is the treatment of the cybercrime, for which they assure “a restructuring at the national level is necessary”. “Right now, there is no cataloging of the agents, they do not have the means or the specific trainingwhich in most cases is self-taught”, they explain. They also point out that the most important thing here is “prevention”; “Notify citizens that such a scam is taking place, because once it is carried out, with the means we have, it is difficult to follow the case,” González indicated.
In Galicia, “more than half of the complaints” are related to the network“although many are not reflected because there is no specific section in the balance sheet and they end up being classified as no infringement“. Although they recognize that there are specialized units in the community, they criticize that their staffing “is at the discretion of the police station, there is no homogeneous criterion.” In most cases, the professionals who are in charge of this type of action, they also carry other areas, if it is not like that, they clarify, they withdraw from other departments, “so one saint undresses to dress another.”
Another problem in this regard is the difficulties or “barriers” that, on many occasions, telephone companies or banks put when providing information. “In many cases, a judicial request is necessary and that delays the proceedings,” says González.
provinces
For their part, the provincial secretaries have provided more detailed data. Continuing the fight against cybercrimehave explained that in Ourense there are four agents, “who were removed from other places”; in Lugo there are six, “who are not exclusively dedicated to this”. In Pontevedra there are four and in Vigo, 10, with the forecast of increasing two more, “but the complaints have multiplied by four or five”, while in the herculean city there are seven, “which do not arrive at all”. “Around 85% of the complaints that reach the complaints office are already Internet scams,” said the Coruña secretary, Sandra Castro.
On A Coruña requestamong other issues, the division of the professionals who deal with room 091 from the rest of the agents –right now they are included in the same category–, since it is a “specialized” job, “that not just anyone can do” and that, given that it falls into another category, it subtracts the necessary professionals. for the police station Santiagothey ask a permanent police intervention unit, while for Ribeira they see the need for “more and more qualified personnel”. The police station also has problems. Ferrolfor which they request a prevention and reaction unit, given its crime rate, the area it covers –Ferrol and Naron– and the number of shantytowns90.
In the province of Lugoaccording to Alfonso Darriba, “the common denominator is the lack of troops, with a deficit of around 14%”. He also points out that, since they have a soccer team in the second division and a basketball team in the ACB, they also need a prevention and reaction unitsince in addition “Lugo is the only provincial capital that does not have one.”
Provincial Secretary of Ourense, for its part, has also censured the “irregularity” of the call for the merits contest, which “should be carried out by jobs and not by templates, as the Ombudsman himself pointed out in a recommendation in 2016”. In Ourense, he has affirmed, there is a deficit of 29 officials. also ask complete the prevention and reaction unit and the creation of a mobile brigade, “specialized in the prevention of crimes, attention to travelers and control of means of transport”. They justify this request with the arrival of the AVE to Ourense.
Lastly, Sandra Fernández gave an account of the police needs in Pontevedrawhich presents a deficit of 123 places. As is the case in A Coruña, in the Olívica city police station there are 25 agents for the 091 room who are withdrawn from the citizen security group, for which it also requests their differentiation. As for the provincial police station, it has also requested a prevention and reaction unit, as it is a city in which “many demonstrations and cultural events” take place and for whose protection “patrols from Vigo are usually taken away”. Regarding the local police stations, he has pointed out that both Marín and Vilagarcía de Arousa are “the great forgotten ones”, with one reinforcement and none, respectively.
