The Professional Union of Port Police has refuted the statements made by the president of the Las Palmas Port Authority, accusing him of "not assuming his share of responsibility." "We are obligated to intervene in the commission of all crimes," said the spokesperson for this union, Artemis Casañas, after Juan José Cardona called on them "not to confuse" their work after the fight that occurred last Saturday in the leisure area of the port of Arrecife.
"That citizen security is the exclusive competence of the State, of the security forces, we all know that, but the port police are agents of the authority and are obliged to intervene in the commission of all crimes and misdemeanors and then make the detainees available to the competent bodies, the evidence that can be obtained, etc.," he stated.
"So, if we observe that a person commits a crime, such as, for example, something serious that has happened to us several times in Las Palmas, a man hitting his partner, are they telling us to record and document what happens, not to intervene and wait for another body to come? This is absurd, because without a uniform I see a man hitting his partner and I subdue him, and am I not going to do it with a police uniform and with the quality of an agent of the authority?" added the spokesperson for the Professional Union of Port Police.
Agents "from job pool" and "without training"
In addition, although he acknowledged that the president of the Port Authority "is not wrong in that the Public Employment Offer depends on the State," Artemis Casañas criticized that "he does not comment on the part of responsibility he has." And, according to the spokesperson for the Professional Union of Port Police, on the night of the Arrecife fight, "there were only two agents on duty, when the ratio should be four or five people to have security guarantees." "And those two people are from a job pool, they are not even staff personnel, but people who are hired to replace sick leave and vacations."
"Those two people are in charge of the entire port area with the importance it has, and they also have to do administrative tasks: answering calls, mooring line... A person acting as boss being a job pool employee, which are very serious facts, and the other who cannot cover an event of these characteristics alone," he indicated.
In addition, the spokesperson for the Professional Union of Port Police revealed that this personnel who have joined from the job pool and who "are almost 50 or 60%" of the port police who are providing service in the province, "have no training" in this regard. "They access, they give him the shackle, the defense and come on, to the dock to patrol," he pointed out.
"What we see is that the Port Authority always tries a little not to assume its share of responsibility. It has its own agents of the authority and has the power to guarantee security within the port facilities. Hey, we all understand that the Civil Guard and the National Police Corps have the powers in citizen security, but if you are patrolling, ensuring the security of the area, you detect crimes and you are obliged to intervene, make that intervention with the security measures and with the means, with the personnel with the training, and all the other agents that come, welcome, but you already have a first intervention in conditions," concluded the president of the Professional Union of Port Police.