Arona town residents to hold their own night patrols in the wake of a burglary spree

Janet© · 23-10-08, 23:47

Residents of the town of Arona are going to institute night patrols themselves after a burglary spree. Apparently, although the police have been informed of residents' worries, nothing has changed, and as there are no police on the streets in the town in the night, the residents say they'll do it themselves.

Neighbourhood meetings have already been held and the decision made to patrol the streets of the town centre and to call the Local Police if anything suspicious is seen.

The residents called on the authorities to avoid this situation by promising in writing to provide the needed police patrols.

El Dia

Janet© · 24-10-08, 08:57

Good grief. The Ayuntamiento has ordered the residents of Arona town not to patrol the streets as a neighbourhood association.

The council won't put police on the street to catch burglars, but it will arrest any citizens who patrol the streets to stop thefts.

Good to know they've got their priorities right.

El Dia

fixer · 24-10-08, 14:00

Thats where one of my friends stays she didnt mention this when i spoke to her this week. David

Janet© · 25-10-08, 01:16

This is in the centre of Arona town itself, David. Is this where your friend is??

Janet© · 26-10-08, 01:09

Well, this is squaring up into a fight ...

The neighbourhood association has said that it is going to go ahead with its nighly patrols despite being told not to, and insisted that they don't intend to carry weapons of any sort, just mobile phones to call the police if they spot anything. They are convinced that this not in violation of any law.

El Dia

Harlequin · 26-10-08, 07:39

Guys

We are having a similar issue in Costa Del Silencio. There have been a number of attacks and burglaries lately and a friend of mine was broken into so I went with them and Sandra to the Guardia Civil with to help with the translation.

The local residents are taking signatures and NIE numbers for a petition to have a more prominent police presence in the area so we asked the Guardia Civil what the best course of action would be to get this problem dealt with. The Guardia Civil said "Do not take the petition to the town hall as you'll only end up with Policia Local who are subject to local politicians and budgets." They advised us to take the petitions to Sta. Cruz as then it would be Guardia Civil patrolling the streets and it wouldn't be subject to local politicians arguing about budgets.

The Guardia Civil want to do this but their hands are tied and they desperately need our help to get more bodies on the street.

If Arona and any other areas are willing to do this I suggest the following:

Get a petition drawn up.
Get as many signatures (with NIE) as you can.
Try and get all nationalities involved as this is a community issue.

If you can get the completed petitions to Costa Del Silencio (Please PM me for the pub's name) I will present these with the ones from Silencio to the Gobierno in Sta. Cruz.

I'll be spending some time in Costa Del Silencio to get an idea of how many signatures we have and will update this post with a date when I'll be going to Sta. Cruz.

We are also going to spend a little time looking into neighbourhood vigilantes and see if there's a company out there that can help or if we can do this ourselves legally.

pelinor · 26-10-08, 11:34

The 'Local Police' are in my experience nothing more that 'Group 4' or 'Securicor' with guns. In fact the latter are probably more professional.
But I do think they have the mandate to patrol and police in areas that the 'Guadia Civil' have no jurisdiction. Maybe a bit of political posturing by the 'Gaurdia Civil' in the advice given by them to gain more power. Its well known that there is little love between the three police forces.

fixer · 26-10-08, 20:20

Quote:

This is in the centre of Arona town itself, David. Is this where your friend is??

On the outskirst just as you enter the town. David

Janet© · 26-10-08, 20:26

That might be the issue, David, because this is bang in the town centre. It might be worth alerting your friend to this issue in Arona town so that she can inform herself about the neighbourhood association and what it's doing.

Harlequin · 27-10-08, 21:54

Sorry if I appear blunt guys and I make no apologies...

Do we want to do something about this or would we prefer to let the good old flavour of British Apathy eat away at the problem...?