The accidental shooting of an agent when picking up his regulatory weapon reveals serious security deficiencies in the procedures at Torrevieja Local Police Station where there is no weapons armoury and where guns are guarded are simply stored in a locker room.
A bullet hole in the locker room wall is all the evidence needed to indicate that the local police headquarters does not comply with the minimum security measures. According to police sources, the accidental discharge happened on Wednesday when an agent was checking his weapon during a shift changeover.
Each of the agents, with the exception of trainees, has a pistol assigned to them. The weapon is checked at the start and end of every. On Wednesday during tat routine operation there was an accidental discharge.
According to a source, the consequences could have been dramatic. The armorer is situated in a corridor, not in specific armoury, where he monitors the constant transfer of police officers and the issue of their weapons during the shift changes.
The unions have been demanding basic security measures for years. Conditions that are systematically met at any other “normal” and professional Local Police headquarters are not available in Torrevieja.
This deficiency was reported to the Labour Inspectorate in 2015, with no response. We understand that this is not the first time that an accidental discharge has occurred in the station.
The cost of providing the compulsory equipment barely exceeds 2,500 euros. The City Council manages an annual budget of 90 million euros but it is seemingly not prepared to allocate the funding despite the blatant disregard of necessary safety measures that could so easily have resulted in the loss of a police officers’ life.
Meanwhile it has recently purchased bulletproof vests -a total of 140, valued at around 90,000 euros-; supply of uniforms (56,000 euros); lease of digital equipment (for 60,000 euros) the allocation of personal defense tasers and electro-shock gun (101,000 euros).
