The two corps will be rolling out a special operation to ensure safety, respect and coexistence during the celebrations for Sant Joan. Measures will be stepped up in public spaces to prevent crime, anti-social behaviour which disturbs local people during their hours of rest and acts which degrade public space.
The City Police are running a special citywide operation with 400 officers, paying special attention to places where crowds could gather and places where flammable materials are stored which could be used for unauthorised fires, as well as the woodlands in the Parc de Collserola.
Breathalyser and drug-driving checkpoints will also be set up around the city to prevent risks on the roads, with officers able to restrict mobility in certain places to avoid crowds.
The police corps will be working with the Mossos d’Esquadra to keep the flow of people at the beach to the ends, and as from 6.30 am on Saturday, 24 June, the beaches will start being cleared so that cleaning services can start work.
Police presence is to be stepped up in the neighbourhoods by the beaches, ensuring local residents’ hours of rest, with work also to focus on unauthorised vending, particularly the sale of drinks. In this respect, special attention will be paid to possible storage points for street vendors selling drinks, with measures also applied to curb binge drinking in public spaces.
Inspections will be conducted at beach bars along the coast, which will be able to open until 3.30 am. Work will also focus on preventing parties and the installation of unauthorised music systems, particularly around the beaches.
The Barcelona Fire Service will also be boosting its operations all around the city to handle the potential demand, paying special attention to woodland areas, with more extinction resources and extra surveillance in these areas well into the night.
It’s important to remember that fireworks may not be thrown in areas close to woodlands in the city and that there is a ban on any activity involving fire within 500 metres of the wooded areas of Collserola and Montjuïc. The long drought period means this is more important than ever this year, as any carelessness could cause a fire.
In the days leading up to the eve of Sant Joan, the Barcelona Fire Service has been conducting inspections and checks, and granting permission for premises selling fireworks, ensuring they comply with safety measures. Authorisation has been given to 122 fireworks sales booths this year.
As from this year it is also prohibited for fireworks sales points to be set up within 500 metres of woodlands.
Another task carried out by the city’s firefighters ahead of the occasion is to establish the minim conditions for bonfires in the streets.
- Large bonfire: no limits on volume
- Small bonfire: with a volume of no more than 250kg of wood
- Bonfire in a burner: with a volume of no more than 25kg of wood
Large bonfires are the only one of these three types for which a report by the Barcelona Fire Service is needed. Six such fires have been validated this year: three in L’Eixample, one in Sant Andreu and two in Sant Martí.
Both the City Police and the Fire Service will be ready to activate the drone service to provide a swifter and more effective response in the case of an emergency. The drones can be used to gain aerial images in cases of forest fires and for prevention tasks, providing greater safety for those on the ground and facilitating decision-making.
As ever, a purple point will also be operating at the Directorate for Beaches, at the Bogatell groyne, with five pairs of staff out and about on foot to provide awareness, prevention and support against sexist violence and LGBTI-phobia. This service will be in place from 10 pm on Friday, 23 June, to 6 am on Saturday, 24 June.
This service will be in place seven days a week, from 10 am to 8 pm, until 17 September.
City Police summer campaign under way
The summer campaign by the City Police will be in place until the middle of September, with a special operation to ensure mobility, harmony, respect and safety in the city during the months with the most intensive use of public space and the arrival of the good weather. The campaign sees the corps stepping up their usual work in coordination with Catalonia’s Mossos d’Esquadra police corps and the rest of municipal services.
The first step was to open the Beach Unit, which has the goal of preventing and addressing all types of incidents and occurrences along the city’s coastline. The unit became operative at the start of the month.
The goals of the unit are to:
- Prevent and control behaviour that causes inconvenience to others. This means correcting conduct that disrupts coexistence or degrades public space, with formal denouncements for infringements relating to anti-social acts (consumption of alcohol or narcotics, for instance).
- Reduce noise: premises open to the public, the use of musical instruments in public which cause recurrent inconvenience to local people etc.
- Increase road safety and reduce accidents, in terms of the number of accidents and victims at a time when mobility in the city has regained pre-pandemic levels. Conduct posing accident risks will be kept in check, as will conduct that can affect the safety and mobility of pedestrians.
- Strengthen the control of personal mobility vehicles used for commercial purposes, particularly rickshaws, and most of all in areas where this activity can affect the daily lives of local people.
- Pay special attention to conduct which visually degrades urban space (graffiti etc.), giving priority to listed heritage spaces.
- Strive for compliance with the regulations for premises open to the public: closing times, control of terraces and capacity etc.
- Strengthen the control of infringements and inconvenience relating to tourist accommodation.
- Prevent criminal activity, in collaboration with the Mossos d’Esquadra corps. Priority will begiven to acts against public security such as theft, muggings, bag snatching and acts against people. Where convenient, coordination between various groups in the corps to combat delinquency and increase the capacity to act.
- Strengthen the prevention of sexual violence in public space: establishment of protection points in spaces where this type of aggression might occur, use of safe routes from leisure areas to the nearest public transport stops, active patrols with stops in areas which might be more attractive to potential aggressors etc.
As for the Barcelona Fire Service, the summer forest fire prevention campaign began at the end of last month to intensify fire prevention work in the parts of the Parc de Collserola which belong to the city.