Agents of the French Police Nationale and the Italian Polizia di Stato will patrol next to the National Police to reinforce the service provided to tourist during the summer in Madrid. It is the first time that two foreign police agencies will patrol at the same time together with Spanish police in the centre of the capital.
This joint work is possible thanks to the project “European Commissariats”, supported by Prüm cooperation of the European Union. The officers of the French Police Nationale and the Italian Polizia di Stato will work this summer on the streets with greater tourist influx in order to give support to the French and Italian citizens who are on holiday in the capital of Spain.
Their work will consist of giving support to the tourists of their respective countries attention in their native language. The Gauls and Italians who have been displaced to Spain are Spanish-speaking and will serve until mid-July at the Commissariat of the Central District of Madrid. Their functions range from uniform patrols on foot or in vehicles in areas of greater tourist influence to the attention to victims of crime, crime prevention or support in the formalization of complaints.
The objective is to offer the tourist a service in the area of citizen security, with police who speak their mother tongue and know the legal procedures of both countries. Joint patrols also represent a step forward in international police cooperation and cooperation, with regard to the improvement of citizen service and consolidate the concept of cross-border security.
Since 2008, the Spanish National Police has been involved in the “European Commissariats” initiative, which also involves agents from other European countries such as Italy, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. On this occasion 31 agents of the National Police have been working in Portuguese, Italian and French police stations since April and will continue to do so until September of this year.
