Ajuntament de Cambrils approved the transfer of administrative handling for confidential preliminary inquiries and disciplinary files involving Cambrils Local Police officers to the Generalitat’s Departament d’Interior i Seguretat Pública on 4 September.

For residents, the change means that investigations and disciplinary procedures affecting the municipal police force will be processed by specialist staff outside the town council, rather than by Cambrils’ own human-resources department. The council said the arrangement is intended to provide impartiality and technical rigour.

The decision passed at an extraordinary plenary meeting with votes from the governing group, Junts and VOX. ERC and the Comuns abstained. The agreement will run for four years and may be extended for a further four.

Town council cites lack of specialist staff

Antonio Martínez, Cambrils’ councillor for public safety, said the council did not have enough human-resources staff to directly conduct these procedures. Under the agreement, the Generalitat department responsible for public safety will carry out the formal processing of cases that remain within the council’s disciplinary powers.

“Having this instrument will strengthen these procedures with the greatest guarantees of impartiality and rigour, using expert staff from outside our organisation,” Martínez said.

The files covered include informació reservada, confidential preliminary inquiries used to establish whether there are grounds to open formal disciplinary proceedings, as well as disciplinary cases themselves.

According to the Departament d’Interior i Seguretat Pública’s 2023 annual report on local police forces, 119 disciplinary files were processed across Catalonia’s local police forces in 2023, 41.7% more than the 84 recorded in 2022.

Opposition groups question staffing policy

Jordi Barberà of the Comuns said his group would abstain. He said it was regrettable that a municipality with 480 council employees had to outsource work because its human-resources department lacked capacity.

ERC spokesperson Neus Cárdenas also abstained, saying her group could agree with the purpose of the agreement but not with the justification based on insufficient human-resources staff.

VOX councillor Isabel Segarra and Junts councillor Teresa Recasens backed the proposal. Recasens said that handling disciplinary procedures internally could make it difficult to ensure equal treatment, while Segarra cited the lack of specialised technical resources.

The approved agreement is due to remain in force for four years, with the option of one further four-year extension.

Primary sources: govern.cat, Departament d'Interior i Seguretat Pública, Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Justícia i Interior, ADMINISTRACIÓN LOCAL, portaljuridic.gencat.cat. Reported by revistacambrils.cat, seu.cambrils.cat, diputaciodetarragona.cat, tarragonadigital.com, Revista Cambrils.