Development of the Management of Safety in Spain: Decentralisation with Little Organisation

• NCJ Number: 236492
• Journal: Crime Prevention & Community Safety Volume: 13 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2011 Pages: 273-283
• Author(s): Amadeu Recasens i Brunet; Anabel Rodriguez Basanta
• Date Published: 2011
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

After describing the basic features of Spain's development of public safety policies since its transition to democracy, this article illustrates changes in public safety from the perspective of the local area of Barcelona.

Abstract

This article views public safety in broad terms as "a guarantee of integrity and legitimate enjoyment and possession of property by individuals and as effective access to their rights and freedom" (Recasens i Brunet, 2007). Current public safety policies in Spain are a direct consequence of the problems of the transition from the Franco totalitarian regime to a democracy during the second half of the 1970s and throughout the decade of the 1980s, together with the social, economic, and territorial conflict of the 1990s. The organization and structuring of the police in Spain's communities gives them more influence and power in interpreting threats and planning responses to public safety than any other community agency. The recent political and economic transformations in Spain have changed city life significantly. Faced with the central government's financial crisis, the cities have had to look for their own sources of funding, resulting in an emphasis on maximizing income from tourism and leisure, which make increased demands upon policing public spaces. Since the 1980s, the central government has focused on broad national and international threats to public safety, i.e., terrorism and transnational organized crime. This has left local governments with the sole responsibility of dealing with local public-safety threats. No mechanisms of accountability for public safety have been established by the central government, nor have such mechanisms been established in local areas. These general dynamics that are operating in the arena of public safety in Spain are illustrated in manifestations of public-safety activities in Barcelona. 15 notes and 21 references