The Zaragoza City Council has taken a new step to promote safety in its neighborhoods. The mayor, Natalia Chueca, announced this Wednesday that the Consistory will expand the municipal video surveillance network, open a new local police headquarters in Las Delicias and integrate the 092 switchboard into the 112 SOS Aragón. The Government of Chueca will also begin the modification of the corps’ catalog in order to increase the workforce.
Chueca has presented these measures during the Debate on the State of the City, held at the City Council of Zaragoza. The mayor has placed security as the main concern of the people of Zaragoza and has reiterated the commitment of the municipal government to continue making Zaragoza one of the safest cities in Spain.
«Without security there is no freedom. There is no freedom if the neighbors cannot walk quietly through their streets, if the merchants cannot carry out their activity normally or if a family is afraid to return home at night,» he said.
MORE CHAMBERS AND A NEW BARRACKS IN DELICIAS
The neighborhoods will gain police presence and new surveillance systems. The City Council will approve in December a framework contract of more than three million euros to expand the municipal video surveillance network with state-of-the-art cameras, meeting both neighborhood demands and the needs detected by the Local Police.
To the thirty cameras that are currently operational, another 40 will be added on the banks of the Huerva. In the coming weeks, the process will also begin to install new video surveillance systems in Conde de la Viñaza and in the surroundings of the Delicias Market, which will be in operation before the end of the year.
Delicias will also have a new stable police presence. Chueca has announced the opening of a local police station in the neighborhood, which will be added to the one that has already been installed in Pignatelli and the one that will be launched during the Fiestas del Pilar in the renovated municipal hostel. The objective is to reinforce the police presence in the neighborhoods and bring the service closer to the neighbors.
el 092 SE INTEGRACIÓN EN EL 112 SOS ARAGÓN
In addition to these initiatives, Chueca has announced that the 092 switchboard will be integrated into the 112 SOS Aragón following a model similar to the one already operating in Barcelona and Valencia and aligned with European recommendations for the comprehensive management of emergencies. All calls will first be received on 112, the only service authorised by the European Union to automatically geolocate them. This will make it possible to know from the beginning the location of the whistleblower, classify the incident and mobilize the Local Police and, when necessary, the rest of the competent services.
The reorganization will free up 25 agents who work in the 092 room to incorporate them into patrol and direct attention in the neighborhoods. The Zaragoza City Council and the Government of Aragon will soon sign the agreement and the new system will begin to be implemented progressively from next September. Before its entry into operation, both administrations will develop a campaign to inform about the use of 112 as a single emergency telephone number and will automatically refer calls related to their competences to the Local Police.
Chueca explained that the measure follows the strategy of reorganizing resources to increase the police presence on the street. As a precedent, he recalled that the outsourcing of the security of the Seminary Building has allowed 30 local police officers who carried out fixed surveillance tasks to be assigned to patrol. «Now we apply that same formula to the 092 room: optimize resources so that more police officers are where the neighbors need them most, in the streets of Zaragoza,» he stressed.
The City Council has reached 100% coverage of the Local Police staff for the first time since 2008, after incorporating more than 400 new agents during the mandate, 104 of them in the last year. The municipal government has thus reversed the progressive loss of personnel and has placed the workforce at the maximum allowed by the current catalog. For this reason, Chueca has instructed the delegate councilor to start the modification of the catalog of jobs, the first step to increase the number of positions. «A city that grows needs public services that grow with it,» said the mayor, who explained that the objective is to continue increasing the number of local police officers in all districts.
The mayor has also framed this decision in the evolution of the troops of the State Security Forces and Corps. The City Council has maintained its request to the Ministry of the Interior to increase the number of National Police in Zaragoza, considering that the growth of the city requires more state resources. Chueca recalled that Zaragoza, the fourth largest city in Spain by population, has a lower staff than other capitals such as Seville, which has around a thousand more officers.
