Tourists in Punta Ballena.

Tourists in Punta Ballena. | MICHELS

Andrew EdePalma21/04/2022 09:38
TW
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The hoteliers are calling for the summer police operation to start earlier than July. This operation entails Guardia Civil and National Police reinforcements and, in certain municipalities, additional police and a structuring of shifts to give greater numbers at nighttime. Control of so-called tourism of excesses plus Spanish students are the hoteliers’ main reasons. (Are the Spanish students somehow different to tourists of excess?)

There is nothing new about this call for an earlier start, and I daresay there will be nothing new about reports emanating from certain resorts or about the bitter complaints of police associations and unions. These complaints centre on the cost of accommodation for officers who are posted to Mallorca for the summer and the inadequacy of the compensation they receive. There is therefore a reluctance to take up these temporary postings.

With or without reinforcements, will the focus be complete or correct? Attention will be paid, as it always is, to Punta Ballena and the Ballermann, thus ignoring resorts blighted by Spanish students (Alcudia) and German Spring Breakers (Cala Ratjada). The main attention will also be on the tourists themselves and not on those who should be held to account - specific hotels and tour/events organisers. Meanwhile, as we all know, there are more sinister issues than some tourists misbehaving - the alleged prostitutes, the theft and the drugs. The summer reinforcement campaign merely serves to obscure the challenges posed by a lack of local police and, for some offences, what can appear to be a weakness of judicial enforcement.