The Subdelegación de Gobierno was forced to reverse its decision to forbid the Policía Local from doing processions and birthday visits to boost morale.
The representative for this administration, Inmaculada López Calahorro, sent a message to town halls saying that they “had taken on board the doubts expressed” and confirmed that municipal authorities should maintain “any activity or service,” they deemed suitable.
This was followed by a note published on its own website that they “in no way” had meant to deny children their birthday treats but had just wished to clarify that this was not the “function” of the municipal police forces and could be “covered by other resources during these exceptional circumstances.”
This U-turn came 24 hours after the Subdelegación had instructed mayors all over the province to cease this activity, as the Secretary of State for Security for the Junta, Sandra García, had instructed these acts of homage, etc, to cease on the 3rd of April.
In other words, the Junta had passed down this prohibition during a video conference with their eight provincial offices in Andalucía five days after having taken the decision on the 3rd.
The first objection to the prohibition had been from police officers themselves with one quoting what they had been taught in the police academy: that an illegal should be ignored. The officer concerned, belonging to the city of Granada, had pointed this out in a video on social media, which quickly went viral. It didn’t take long for the City Council of Granada to announce that they would be ignoring this prohibition from Sevilla.
The Mayor of Granada, Luis Salvador, who is heads a coalition administration (Cs/PP) announced that this decision had “detracted from efforts rather than increased them,” reproaching in this manner the provincial representative of the Junta. This was quickly followed by a statement from the city Councillor for Citizen Safety, César Díaz, saying that there would be no disciplinary action taken against the police officer for posting the video, adding that “any spontaneous support given for children, the elderly or anybody who has been confined to their flat, will not be curtailed.
Meanwhile down on the Costa Tropical rebellion was growing with the mayors of Motril and Salobreña expressing their rejection of the restriction. Interestingly, the former belongs to the same party governing the Junta de Andalucía. The Mayor of Salobreña went so far to say that they would skirt the prohibition by using municipal vehicles with a tannoy system if police vehicles could not be used.
But things really blew up in the face of the Subdelegación when police forces all over the region and even on a national level expressed their disapproval of the prohibition via their labour union: Confederación de Seguridad Local y Autonómica, la Asociación de Jefes y Directivos de las Policías Locales de Andalucía and the Unión de Sindicatos de Policía Local y Bomberos.
Editorial comment: that’s what you call a boomerang blow for bureaucrats who forget who is paying their salaries.
(News: Granada, Andalucia)