The ATAP union has reported that trainee police officers in Palma patrol alone and without essential equipment. Furthermore, it warns of a "pact of silence" and "inhumane" conditions within the force.
The ATAP union has focused on the situation of the trainee police officers in Palma. According to their claims, these recruits are sent out to patrol the streets of the city alone without the basic police equipment necessary to ensure their safety. The organisation believes that this practice unnecessarily increases the "risk" they are exposed to and could jeopardise their professional future in the event of any complex intervention.
A "pact of silence" reported from within
ATAP asserts that it was the only union that refused to sign the pact reached with Cort last June, an agreement that, they claim, "silenced the unions for 18 months". The organisation states that this decision allows them to act with "absolute independence" and "without being conditioned by political commitments".
"This is a decision of enormous gravity," warn the union, which criticises the separation of armed and qualified officers to create a "false sense of greater police presence". A measure they describe as "for show" and which, they claim, "puts the integrity and lives of the officers in serious danger".
Police facilities "like Nordic saunas"
The complaints are not limited to the lack of equipment. ATAP also warns about the state of several police facilities. At the Sant Ferran barracks, officers have been enduring the lack of an adequate air conditioning system in common areas and changing rooms for years. During the summer, extreme temperatures turn these facilities into "practically uninhabitable" spaces, according to the union.
In the Maravillas facilities, in Platja de Palma, the situation is similar. The only response from the administration has been to install small portable units, which ATAP considers incapable of resolving "a structural problem".
Trainees performing cleaning duties
Another complaint directly affects the trainee officers. According to ATAP, they are being assigned to perform cleaning duties in the facilities during weekends, tasks that they consider "completely unrelated to their police training". A practice that, in their view, reflects "the level of neglect currently suffered by the force".
The union reminds that the trainees have not yet completed the Basic Training Course of the EBAP and should always act under the supervision of career officials. Using them to cover the lack of personnel or allowing them to act autonomously, they warn, "could compromise the legal validity of certain police actions".
So far, the Palma City Council has not commented on these complaints. Meanwhile, the residents of the city see how the Local Police continues to patrol, although perhaps not with the resources or conditions they deserve.
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