Living on the costa

Unions have denounced the conditions suffered by the Local Police of Esteponaboth material and human resources, with first-aid kits without sanitary material, gun racks in poor condition, deficiencies in the facilities of the Headquarters of the local security body or lack of agents.

The representative in the City Council of the Central Independent Trade Union and Officials (CSIF), José María López, has criticized that the Local Police staff is “under minimum for many years”, assuring that in currently operating “120 agents” of the 165 that there were in 2011, and of which “between 60 and 70 are on the street”, despite the fact that the municipality has experienced a population increase of “more than 10,000 inhabitants” in the last decade.

In line with this, he alluded to the “problem” that is generated in urbanizations, both in the eastern and eastern areas of the city, ensuring that “they do not step on and only leave when there is a requirement” and where he has ensured that “ordinary patrolling does not exist”. At the same time, he has indicated that the latter “in the urban area is very limited”, for which he has given as an example that “the Marina requires three couples permanently” and the area “is covered with one”.

Likewise, he has lamented the average age of the agents, and has indicated that at present “he is in his 50s”, for which he has stated that “the Local Police is very old and is very scarce”. The “staff shortage” has caused many police unions to decide that agents do not work overtime, since López has assured that the City Council resorts to this formula to “cover the lack of personnel”. The elimination of a consolidated salary supplement in plenary in 2019 has also pushed this measure, he added.

As for the material means, the trade unionist has pointed to the “eternal wardrobe problem”, indicating that “the City Council has never respected the biannuality” established by law for its replacement. About the Local Police Headquarters facilitieshas highlighted “neglect and lack of maintenance”, as well as “the lack of security cameras”.

He also lamented the state “depressing in terms of locker room sanitation”, assuring that there are “cockroaches, rats or mice”, while on the weapons he has alluded to the fact that it is “obsolete” or “they do not practice shooting” despite the fact that there is a gallery. On the other hand, he has criticized the state of the bulletproof vests, which, according to him, “are 30 years old and broken.”

For this reason, it requests “to recover the full application of the agreements of labor personnel and the regulatory agreement of civil servant personnel”, that the mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, “comply with the 2015 commitment of a salary review with a minimum increase of 10%” and to give the agents “respectful treatment”.

For his part, the general secretary of the Andalusian Independent Police Union (SIP-AN) in Estepona, Fernando Martín, has pointed out that the Local Police staff “is quite depleted” and currently “there is 50% of the effective that there should be” based on the population of the municipality. Like his colleague, he has alluded to the lack of personnel and has expressed the opinion that the local security body should have “200 or 250” agents” compared to “less than 130 who are active.”

In this way, it has shown thediscontent” of the policesince it governs “a 2003 agreement that expired in 2007”, he assured, and with “a temporary freeze on labor rights that were never unfrozen” in the “austerity plan” of 2011. As he pointed out, this “lack of personnel” is reflected in the City Council’s use of “overtime”, indicating that for events such as a fair or a parade they cover themselves with the policemen who are on duty and those “who are on break and work overtime”. For this reason, and in the absence of negotiating a “regulatory agreement” since 2011 “the workers say up to here and they are not going to do any more overtime”, he has underlined.

Martín has alluded to the “lack of interest” of the government team “in providing resources to the Citizen Security department”, of which he has highlighted its “lack” with lack of “equipment in vehicles, empty first-aid kits” or the lack of “signaling cones” in patrol cars, which in his words forces the agents to “improvise and use different material”, usually construction, to signal potholes in the road.

In this sense, he has pointed to the “lack of provision” of the vehicleswithout a “maintenance of sanitary material”, for which basic products such as “gauzes or hydrogen peroxide” are lacking, ensuring that thepeople have to use “toilet paper that they keep in the glove compartment” at specific times, as happened two weeks ago with an injured person on Andalucía Avenue who had “abundantly bleeding wounds on his legs” and before whom a police officer had to act “with a roll of toilet paper” until the ambulance arrived to “plug the wound”.

Likewise, he has criticized the Local Police gunsmiths “are fastened with aluminum rivets and a padlock from the hardware store”, something that, as indicated, has been denounced before the Civil Guard of Malaga, assuring that the City Council “has the obligation to ensure the custody of weapons.” To this he has added that many cameras installed inside the Headquarters “do not work, are in disuse and rusty”, as well as alluded to “lack of maintenance” of them.

From SIP-AN they ask the City Council for “a formal commitment with the citizens in divert a reasonable budget allocation that it encompasses the guarantees that the department of citizen security needs, reasonable working conditions and that the policemen be given professional peace of mind in their labor rights”, as well as that “the vehicles and the Headquarters are in adequate conditions”.