More police at popular beach from tomorrow

The summer campaign in the Playa de Palma starts tomorrow and that means that there will be an additional 66 police officers on patrol, Mayor Joan Fageda said yesterday. He said it was necessary to increase police vigilance in the popular beach, which stretches from Can Pastilla to Arenal, one of the chief holiday destinations of Europe. Police operations between the Local and National forces will be co-ordinated from the police station which was opened in the Playa de Palma last year. Local Police took action on the Playa de Palma on more than 5'000 occasions last year, most of them related to traffic offences, fines for which went up by 43 per cent. The control of noise was another aspect of police work which the Mayor stressed, pointing out that music on terraces has to stop at midnight. Eight bars were closed last year for infringing the regulations while 15 others had to stop playing music. The number of detentions over beach vendors rose from 1'786 to 2'683 last year. Complaints against the trileros (the shell and pea scam) rose by 75 per cent and more than 2.3 million pesetas was seized.