George Mathias
A REPORT published on Tuesday found that Palma is Spain’s third most dangerous city for tourists.
The findings, published by global database Numbeo, looked at crime rates among cities in Spain with populations over 100,000 for crimes associated with tourism, such as petty theft.
Basque capital Bilbao was given the unwanted moniker of most dangerous city, followed by Barcelona.
After Palma, Sevilla, Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Malaga and San Sebastian rounded off the top 10.
The president of the PP in Palma, Jaime Martínez, blamed the figures on ‘the progressive loss of local police officers’.
Photo: Flickr
According to the PP figures, there are currently 600 officers working on the beat compared to 1,000 twenty years ago, at a time when the population of the municipality had 100,000 fewer people.
Martinez, a former Balearic tourism minister and hotly tipped to be the PP candidate for the next mayoral election, says the PP will increase police numbers “when we come to govern”.
“Residents of Palma have had enough of high crime rates, which he blames on a lack of security on the streets, especially at night,” he said.
Silvia Fuentes, chief inspector of the National Police’s robberies squad in Palma, denied Palma was an unsafe city.
“Palma has never been an excessively challenging city. We are an island and the entrance and exit of thieves is quite controlled. When we come across a wave of unusual thefts, the perpetrators are foreigners. On the island itself, the police know who the thieves are, and they know the police. This, without any doubt, helps us solve many cases,” she said.
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