CCOO union representatives at Palma town hall have blamed the councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor, for a lack of police officers and resources.
The union has drawn particular attention to security and behaviour issues at the airport and in Playa de Palma. It notes that some 20,000 tourists are in Playa de Palma, that there are issues with drinking and fighting, that there are also around 300 illegal street sellers, while organised gangs are operating illegal gambling.
Making the point that there is a level four terrorist attack risk alert, the union goes on to mention the difficulty with managing "population diversity". It also refers to groups of neo-Nazis and to prostitution.
To illustrate the shortage, the CCOO says that on Friday only two officers were patrolling the front line between Balnearios One and Eight. Five other officers had to cover all services in the Playa District. These officers, moreover, are on average fifty years of age, are not equipped with bulletproof vests and have vehicles with deficiencies. They cannot, the union concludes, defend themselves adequately.
Pastor, the union maintains, had said that the number of officers would be trebled, but it says that reinforcements for the police service are "clearly insufficient". The councillor, for her part, has criticised the union for being "irresponsible" and "inconsiderate towards colleagues". Regarding the age of officers, she says that this is because the town hall is limited in its recruitment of new officers because of national laws on financial stability.
She took issue with union claims regarding number of officers for Playa de Palma. The CCOO has maintained that there would be a trebling from 80 officers to 240, when in fact there was an average of 35 last summer, which will be raised to 92 this year.
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They make Playa de Palma sound like the kind of place for families to stay well away from.