The Alicante City Council has put out a bid for a private security contract for several city facilities. The goal is to free up about 36 local police officers who are now providing this service so they can be sent back to their regular patrol and public safety duties. This plan is part of an agreement with the Vox municipal group and will be carried out in stages, starting with the current security services offered by the local police in the offices of the Departments of Security, Culture, Markets, and Social Services.
The City Council facilities and buildings that are part of this contract are the Bacarot and Babel vehicle depots, Santa Bárbara Castle, the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA), the four municipal markets (Central, Babel, Carolinas, and Benalúa), and the Comprehensive Citizen Service Centres (SAIC) of Gastón Castellón and the Plaza de Séneca. The security arch at the entrance to the City Hall building on Calle Jorge Juan is also included.
“We want to keep bringing the Local Police closer to the people of Alicante and make our officers more visible to improve public safety,” said Julio Calero, the councillor for the area. He also said that hiring private security for city buildings has already been done “without any problems” in previous administrations of the Alicante City Council. “And this new contract will help us reach that goal, just like the new Mobile Citizen Service Office we opened last month in busy areas of the city like markets, beaches, streets, squares, and other places,” he said.
Mario Ortolá, Vox’s deputy spokesperson, said, “Given the direction the city is taking in terms of security, we believe it is necessary to have the maximum number of officers in operational street posts and, as in many other municipalities and institutions, leave the surveillance of public facilities to private security, saving costs and increasing the preventive and reactive role of our Local Police on public roads.”
Calero said that the new private security contract and the opening of the Mobile Citizen Service Office will happen at the same time as the Local Police getting 10 new cars in November as part of the fleet renewal procedure agreed upon with Vox. For operation on Tabarca Island, the fleet now includes six new hybrid Ford Focus police vehicles, three Ford Ranger pickup trucks, and one electric vehicle.
Author: Derek Appleton
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