Barcelona City Council is finalizing the installation of up to 17 video surveillance cameras at five intersections on Passeig de Gràcia. If the conditions set out in the different municipal tenders that will make the project possible are met, these devices will come into operation at the end of this summer.
We are talking about some devices that are usually called intelligent and of very high resolution, even equipped with facial recognition, which will allow those responsible for city security to classify pedestrians on this main axis based on their gender, their age , your glasses, your backpacks, your bags, your hats, your clothes... The cost of this system will be around 200,000 euros. The presence of these devices on the promenade, however, will be very discreet. They will hardly be seen.
It is actually a very old demand of the merchants of the most stately promenade in the city already raised during the pre-pandemic years, during those in which the area and the rest of the city presented the worst records in terms of insecurity in recent years. time.
At this time, in this sense, the situation on Paseo de Gràcia has little to do with what was suffered in 2019, a year generally considered terrible in terms of citizen insecurity. Despite this, the insistence of repeat offenders continues to be the main concern of merchants in the area. This control system is mainly designed to complicate the lives of snipers, watchmakers, pickpockets... and indeed all criminals who try to hide their misdeeds among the crowds.
Because the records of these recording devices will also make it possible to discriminate between who is loitering in the area and who is standing in line, between who is hiding something and who simply does not know what to do with so many bags on them... And they will also collect the number plates and the main characteristics of the different vehicles. vehicles. In addition, the system contemplates the possibility of differentiating sounds, discerning between an explosion, a shot, a cracking shop window...
The new cameras, however, will also present limitations in order not to violate anyone's privacy and limit this surveillance to what happens in public space. The interior of the buildings will always be completely outside of its objective.
A study by the Urban Police establishes the location of each of these devices. We will find them on both sides of the promenade, specifically two of them at the intersection with Provença, another with Mallorca, three with Aragó, seven with Gran Via and the remaining four with Ronda Sant Pere. In reality, access to luxury stores is not their main objective. The truth is that these spaces are not the most dangerous. One of these 17 cameras will pay special attention to the surroundings of La Pedrera and another to those of Casa Batlló. The classic crowds in front of the most visited monuments are always frequented by repeat offenders.
Luis Sans, president of the Associació Passeig de Gràcia merchants association, details that criminal acts carried out on this promenade fell by up to 49% compared to those registered in 2019.
“2019 was a terrible year, especially bad – details the representative of the merchants -. This is a much higher drop than that registered in all of Barcelona. This is mainly due to an increase in the police presence throughout the axis, both uniformed and plainclothes agents, and also to better coordination with those in charge of security at the establishments”.
Sans also explains that for some time now the employees posted at the doors of most of the promenade always have an eye on the street. And as soon as they recognize a happy multi-reoffender, they communicate it via WhatsApp to the mossos deployed in the area. And if they can, these doormen also send the police a photograph of the suspect in question. The work of these employees is eminently preventive. They don't play police or anything like that.
“These employees underwent adequate training,” the president of the Passeig de Gràcia Association abounds. What it is about is making life difficult for highly professional criminals who try to take advantage of the holes in our legal system.”
The criminals that most worry merchants at this time are those specialized in robbing customers of car parks once they go for their vehicles after making their purchases, as well as the pullers and watchmakers.
“The problem is that, despite the fact that the Penal Code has already been reformed to punish multiple recidivism, the holding of the trials is still taking ten or eleven months. And when the hearing date finally arrives, the suspect is already far from Barcelona. That's why we have so many roaming criminals, thieves who come to town to commit their misdeeds for a few days. We are convinced that the new cameras will help deter them and facilitate investigations. Various police studies conclude that these devices reduce crimes committed in public spaces by at least 30%”.
In the previous mandate, Colau and his people were very reticent about these control systems. But the assumption by his socialist partners of the responsibilities in terms of security after the last elections mitigated that rejection. The deployment of cameras in the city is also a consequence of Barcelona's participation in the European Securities project, aimed at improving the protection of public space against terrorist threats. At the moment, the most daily needs of Barcelona are different. The turning point in the commission of crimes brought about by the pandemic has already come to an end.
