Populares: “The abandonment of the local police reduces the security of Xàbia”
Rosa Cardona: “Chulvi has two problems to guarantee citizen security in Xàbia: firstly is the need to have more police and the second is that the police we have do not go to other municipalities.”
FILE PHOTO: The local force of Xàbia with then-councillor for Citizen Security Pepa Gisbert.
Monday 22nd November 2022 – PRESS RELEASE with Mike Smith
The Xàbia branch of the Partido Populares (PP) has issued a statement which claims that mayor José Chulvi and his government team have abandoned the local police force, paying them some of the lowest salaries in the region and forcing them to look for better conditions in other municipalities, which, they say, will increase a feeling of insecurity amongst the residents of the town.
The full statement reads as follows:
What the residents of Xàbia demand is to feel safe and secure. This can be achieve through obedience and respect or, if this isn’t possible, to have a police presence covering the whole of the municipality. However, we lack this.
Xàbia has two problems to solve in citizen security and now that the chaotic summer of 2021 has passed, a balance of the situation has been made and, in view of everything that happened, we must be consistent with the situation and the staff must be strengthened and appreciate this police force with deeds, not words, because otherwise those who lose will be the residents.
Right now, Xàbia does not have a sufficient number of police officers to cover the needs of the entire municipal area. The socialist government knows this. The years go by and the changes or improvements that are needed are not produced. We continue at a minimum without increasing the staff, so Populares Xàbia have asked the municipal government if it is going to remedy the current situation of the police staff that instead of being strengthened, it has been diminishing for years.
The second problem is that the police officers are leaving, forced to go to work in other municipalities, and the same will happen with the interim positions that have just become permanent; in two years they will have their position consolidated and they will also leave Xàbia , and all this will be aggravated with the upcoming retirements of agents.
The reason for the gradual departure of local police from Xàbia to other municipalities is to get fair remuneration for their work. Xàbia pays the lowest salaries in the region, surprisingly low salaries compared to any other job. The police staff has begged the mayor countless times for a regulation of salaries, or at least, that they be compensated for the night and holiday hours, but nothing of what was promised.
As long as these problems are not solved, the police workforce will diminish, citizen insecurity will grow in Xàbia and the only competent and knowledgeable municipal government of the municipality’s situation will have to reconsider and do the right thing to solve it.
