Crisis as Binissalem police officers seek transfers

With the exception of Fridays and Saturdays, there is no police cover at nighttime. In the case of emergency, the public has to contact 112 rather than the local police. This Sunday, there will be insufficient cover to guarantee security at polling stations for the general election, while this will coincide with the annual "botellón" drinking to celebrate Angel Sunday.

Three weeks ago, officers went public in voicing their complaints at a council meeting. They called on the mayor, Victor Marí, to take measures to reduce the demands made of on-call officers. However, officers say that there has been no improvement. The police tutor, who deals with schools and juveniles, has resigned from this position, certain officers have requested that they don't work extra hours and five have formally asked to be moved to other municipalities.

In the past three months, the number of police officers has gone down from thirteen to nine. The legal ratio for Binissalem should be fourteen; the population is 8,300.

Marí says that procedures have been started to hire more officers but he notes that Binissalem cannot compete with, for example Palma, in terms of salaries.