AN accident has just happened at a crossroads on Calle Boquetillo. The driver of one of the cars involved took flight down Avenida de Mijas. The Operations Coordination Centre of the Local Police in Fuengirola goes into action immediately. They first check the screen to find out the position of the nearest patrol car and then key in the registration number of the car in question. “Bravo 45 to Charlie 20, head for Calle Boquetillo...”. The telephone rings again. A girl on the other end of the line reports an attempted robbery on Calle Alcalde Clemente Díaz. “Wait there until a police unit arrives,” a soothing voice instructs. Although this could be a scene from a Hollywood cop movie, it is, in fact, a fairly normal day in room 092/112 of the Operations Coordination Centre, which uses the latest communication technologies to keep the streets of Fuengirola safe. “Our aim is to improve our response time and provide a better service all around,” we are told by Jorge Moreno, the Local Police officer who heads this department, which was set up in the middle of last year.
The soundproof room, with access limited to the team of 13 and few others, has a plaque on the wall that sums up what the unit is all about. “Your security is our function…we are the eyes, the ears and the voice of the people,” it says. José Antonio, one of the team members, explains in his own words: “We have to get in as much information as possible from each call, so that our people on the streets will have it on the spot.”
The system includes a computerised map of the municipality, allowing the team to know exactly where an incident is taking place and where the nearest patrol car happens to be. They have a constant link with the 092 emergency lines, as well as being in touch at all times with the Local Police, the National Police, the fire-fighting service and other emergency services. “Coordination is fundamental in what we do, to offer the best service possible to the people,” says Moreno.
Effective management
The work of the team lies as much in the prevention of crime as in dealing with it after the fact. They have a constant inflow of information, and this allows them to identify especially conflictive areas of the municipality and plan ahead. “Having this information, we can take certain measures before an incident takes place, and make plans according to developing circumstances,” we are told by Moreno.
The system will be improved shortly with the installation of a TETRA radio-communications system, by which a police patrol attending to an incident on the streets can speak directly to the person who has reported the incident, thereby having as much information as possible before arriving at the scene. “This will make for a more effective system all round, in that the information we get will be first-hand,” says Joaquín Rueda, head of the Local Police. A total of 33,000 calls were made since July 2007, in 9,000 cases requiring police intervention. “The rest were mostly requests for information,” says Moreno.
Three basic programmes
The modernisation of the Local Police force, faster response capacity, better communications with other police forces and an improved service for the people. These are the three basic aims of the Operations Co-ordination team in Fuengirola. As soon as they receive a call, the GEMYC system is activated, by which all the relevant services are alerted immediately and all the information they need is prepared and processed. Then the Mapping and Positioning programme is activated, which allows the team to locate the nearest patrol cars available and any of the other emergency services that might be required. And finally, with the Communications Integrator system, the team members can continue to follow exactly what is going on in the streets of Fuengirola at all times.
