Barcelona City Council has approved the next steps to equip the Guardia Urbana, the city police, with Taser devices. The decision was backed on Thursday 26 June by PSC, Junts, PP and Vox, according to official council statements. The devices cannot be carried yet, because the rules still need to be completed and the force must finish training and procurement.
The move revives a plan that failed in 2024. At that time, the regulation stalled in the full council and the purchase was later paused, with the city council saying there was no consensus with trade unions. Official records from 2024 also show Junts had asked for more dialogue with unions before backing the regulation.
The Ajuntament de Barcelona said the full council approved a PP proposal to provide Taser devices to the Guardia Urbana. On the same day, the Commission of the Presidency approved the initial regulation that will govern how the devices can be used. The council's published results show support from PSC, Junts, PP and Vox.
This is the second attempt in two years to introduce Taser devices in the municipal police. In 2024, the final approval of the regulation was voted down in the full council, according to the Ajuntament's own notice after the session. In a separate official statement published in October 2024, the city council said the Guardia Urbana had paused the purchase because there was no consensus with unions.
The main change this time is political support. The council's 2026 statements show that parties that were previously at odds on the measure voted together, allowing both the policy motion and the initial regulation to move forward. That gives the city a route to restart a process that had stalled, but it does not settle every operational detail yet.
The next practical step is publication and processing of the regulation through official city council channels. Residents who want to follow the measure should check the Ajuntament de Barcelona news section and the municipal gazette or plenary documentation once the final text is published. For background on how we handle official documents and verification, see our Source Transparency page and Editorial Policy.
For readers following Catalonia-wide civic and public safety coverage, see our News tag. For now, the immediate takeaway is simple: Barcelona has reopened the path to arming the Guardia Urbana with Taser devices, but the rollout is not yet complete.
