EDITORIAL

By Jason Moore TOO little, too late. Having English speaking police officers is a good idea but surely all police officers based in tourist resorts should be able to speak some English. Also, the announcement that a new “tourist police force” is being set-up could also give the wrong impression. At a time when most British holidaymakers, according to a recent survey, fear pick-pockets more than Bin Laden the announcement that a new force is being created just for tourists could make your average sceptical holidaymaker even more worried about crime when he or she is on holiday. “If Majorca is such a safe haven and there is little crime, then why is a new police force aimed strictly at tourists being created?” That would be one of the questions which would be running through my mind. The tourist police force should have been introduced 20 years ago like many of the ideas which the new Partido Popular government are contemplating. Twenty years ago and Majorca was plagued by a whole series of so-called hooligan problems. These sorts of incidents have been reduced dramatically, thanks on the whole to the efforts of the police force. Other resorts across the Mediterranean have not been so lucky and there is even a possibility that British police officers will be sent to resorts in Greece to control rowdy holidaymakers. I saw in one British newspaper yesterday that the new Majorcan force and the British police for Greece had been lumped together in one article even though they are completely different things. Instead of yet another new police force in the Balearics I would save the money and send all existing officers on a language course.