The Local Police of Llançà, in Alt Empordà (Girona) has created a team with six officers to combat illegal occupations and thefts.
The operations include controls at the train station with identification and in the houses where the Local Police know there are squatters.
The team has managed to evict a problematic building with about eight occupants and hopes that the other two floors will soon be resolved, in one of which the problematic evictees were relocated.
The Councilor for Security, Josep Ortiz, says that it is the "main concern" of the government team. "We are also making a great effort to avoid the call effect," he says.
The council also plans to install more than a dozen video surveillance cameras in the coming months to protect the municipality's urbanizations.
Between the end of June and the beginning of July 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, Llançà suffered a wave of robberies and apartment occupations that generated strong unrest among the population. So much so that dozens of people demonstrated for several days to denounce the feeling of insecurity. The then mayor, Francesc Guisset, linked part of the crime to the squatters and demanded more police pressure to combat it.
The situation had normalized during the following winter after several evictions and arrests, but at the beginning of 2021 the alarms went off again. Some establishments were robbed and five people were arrested for occupying a flat and storing stolen items. An attempt had also been made to enter two other floors without success.
For months, the City Council has been working to combat new conflictive occupations to prevent them from leading to a similar situation. Although they are not numerous, some are problematic and the desire is to "eradicate" them as soon as possible. A few days ago, a building - with three occupied floors - on Nord Street was evacuated.
The occupiers, eight people of Moroccan nationality, had the neighbors "threatened" and caused serious problems of coexistence and civility.
There are two others left in this situation: one on Colomer Street and one on Núria Street, which has a foreclosure process with a tenant. According to the City Council, the woman has given the keys to those evicted from the Nord Street block and is now waiting to evict them again.
The government team hopes to be able to solve "the problem" in the coming weeks and encourages those affected to report to the police as soon as they detect a possible occupation. "Going out into the streets is of no use, what people should do is report," Ortiz remarks. "A lot of work is being done and it is the City Council's main concern at the moment," insists the Security Councilor.
To deal with it, weeks ago the Local Police decided to establish a stable team with six agents. The troops are dedicated to carrying out operations week after week with controls at the train station, "where many of the squatters arrive", and in the houses where there are criminal occupations. "They are agents who work overtime and who sign up voluntarily to confront it"; assures the head of the Local Police, Òscar Soler.
Soler and Ortiz emphasize that many of these squatters also commit thefts and robberies in establishments and homes in the town and have records in other places.
For this reason, he says, they will continue to carry out operations permanently to "prevent Llançà from being a destination that they choose to occupy illegally."
In the last two months, the Local Police have made seven arrests and 11 are being investigated for various crimes. In the last month alone, two arrests, 29 identifications, seven complaints for drug possession, two for alcohol abuse and two controls in problematic establishments, among others, have been made. In addition, 23 hours of special devices have been carried out.
On the other hand, the municipality has video surveillance cameras at the main entrances but it is expected that over the next year more than a dozen will be installed in the different urbanizations that are scattered around and that, on some occasions, have been the subject of jobs. . Ortiz explains that an amount of about 40,000 euros will be allocated. "Practically all of them will be covered and will serve to control robberies, thefts and jobs," insists Ortiz.
