The executive committee of the ten councils forming the Arc Metropolità met in Mataró today, announcing they will act as private prosecutors against repeat offenders. This move marks a significant step in their long-standing campaign to improve security across their municipalities, according to officials.
Mayors and mayoresses reiterated that repeat offending is a primary public safety concern affecting all Catalan municipalities, particularly those in the metropolitan area due to their high population density and activity. The new Law against Repeat Offending will finally penalise repeated thefts, which, while perhaps less violent, cause public unease and damage the perception of safety and the image of cities due to their apparent impunity.
Now that the legal reform has been achieved, the councils believe its full effectiveness requires supporting instruments at three levels: police, local councils, and the justice administration.
Strengthening Enforcement and Judicial Processes
At the police level, local police forces and the Mossos d'Esquadra need stronger capacity to support the justice administration in prosecuting and convicting crimes. This requires clear instructions on the procedures police bodies must follow.
For local councils, instructions must be issued to their general secretaries and legal advisors on how to initiate, act as private prosecutors in judicial proceedings, and request precautionary measures against repeat offenders. The justice system, in turn, needs more resources and better management capacity to process repeat offending trials more quickly and in greater numbers. This includes an equitable and proportionate distribution of new judges announced to drive the plan against repeat offending.
To quickly implement these legal reforms, the mayors and mayoresses of the Arc Metropolità Association are urgently requesting an extraordinary, single-topic session of the Catalan Police Commission from the Generalitat's Department of Interior. This session should include representatives from police forces, municipalities, and the justice administration.
A Long-Standing Demand for Change
The Arc Metropolità municipalities' call for measures to end repeat offending has a long history. In September 2024, the Arc Metropolità Executive Committee approved a joint resolution demanding more measures to ensure safety and civility, which already included calls for changes to the Penal Code to address repeat offending.
On 11 February, a dozen mayors and mayoresses from the Arc Metropolità travelled to Madrid for the approval of the Law against Repeat Offending. The new regulation stipulates that thefts will no longer be treated as isolated incidents when there is repeat offending, allowing for penalties of one to three years in prison. It also allows local councils to notify the Public Prosecutor's Office and act as private prosecutors, and for local police to access centralised judicial information, which should help more coordinated and effective action.
