Summer operation by the City Police at all city beaches
The City Police Beach Group became operative on 24 May and will remain active until the end of September. Ninety officers will be patrolling the ten beaches along the city’s coast, helping to control occupancy levels and ensure safety measures according to current regulations, as well as dealing with any problems that arise.
The beach group is made up of 90 officers, who patrol the beaches on foot, with scooters, quads, bicycles, sand quads and two rigid inflatable boats, to improve surveillance and order along the beaches and the groynes. The group has 32 vehicles in all.
The group carries out the following tasks:
- Control of offences relating to uncivil conduct, occupancy of public highways, noise pollution, waste etc.
- Prevention and action against pickpocketing and theft of all types, including registering and processing reported crimes.
- Control of personal mobility vehicles at the beaches.
- Support for victims of criminal offences, care of lost children and assistance with first aid.
- Assistance and control of activities at the beaches and the area where bathing is prohibited.
How to find out how busy the beaches are in Barcelona?
The City Council has been monitoring beach occupancy levels since early May as a preventive measure for Covid-19. The protocol includes information staff on the beaches and at access points to them.
There is also a specific website with information on the city’s ten beaches, where users can check how busy each beach is.
Where to go in cases of pickpocketing or theft on a Barcelona beach?
Anybody who is the victim of pickpocketing or theft can report the incident at the joint office operated by the City Police and the Mossos d’Esquadra. The office is at the Barceloneta beach (Passeig de Joan de Borbó Comte de Barcelona, 32).
Between this module and another at the groyne at the Bogatell beach, municipal officers monitor and control all incidents detected at the beaches.
Balance of action in 2020
Last summer saw the beach group confiscate 69,308 drinks being sold by non-authorised sellers, some 60% less than the previous year. In all, 8,927 denouncements were registered relating to non-authorised vending, along with 117 for other unauthorised activities.
There were also 53 formal denouncements against people for not respecting bathing instructions, most of them for bathing at the groynes or in other areas where bathing is prohibited or access restricted.
