The mayor of Cornellà, Antonio Balmón, announced last week in his capacity as executive vice-president of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) a metropolitan security system, which must be finalized in a long year, with the forecast that it will begin to be developed at the beginning of next term.
Citizens clearly perceive the action of a city council, but how do they judge that of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area? Metropolitan awareness comes through the politics of city councils and metropolitan systems that deal with day-to-day activities. I am not very concerned about identity, I am concerned about the identity linked to daily life that today is managed by the AMB. The protection of the coastline, of natural spaces, of mobility, of the transformation of public space. In the end, what is important is that citizens experience this space with dignity, regardless of who is in charge of it.
Insecurity has been seen as a problem in Barcelona for a long time. Does it also generate citizen concern in the AMB? No, the data from most municipalities indicate that it has decreased. The issue is perception. The police field works on concrete facts. Perception has a lot to do with the treatment of public space. And in some places there is still concern.
What does a metropolitan security system provide? Why do we need it? First you have to understand why we call it a system. A system implies that you address security, in terms of facts and perception and in terms of coexistence. And it supposes that you endow yourself with different performances, with different proposals. It is cross. That is why we call it an integral system. It would be a mistake to identify it only as a police issue. Security and coexistence go beyond that. If not, we would talk about police coordination and that’s it. An integral system implies a sum of resources, actions, to take a leap forward. First to systematize: that there be similar actions in all the municipalities of the Metropolitan Area. Secondly, to make economic scales that allow these similar actions to be generated, because not all cities can reach this treatment of public space at the same rate. A system also serves to improve police coordination, because today technology allows it. Some municipalities have been doing it for nine years.
“It would be a mistake to identify it only as a police issue. A comprehensive system implies a sum of resources, of actions, to take a leap forward”
They are the 12 municipalities that share the M7 application. How does it work? Through an application designed to quickly communicate with the urban guard, we have generated a comprehensive action system in these cities, which protects the elderly, young people, previously monitored people, women. We asked the Fundación Einsmer, from Cornellà, which is in charge of Barcelona Turisme’s IT department, for an application and that’s how the story began. With an icon on your mobile you call the police instantly. It has been used for threatened people, for example women with partners who have restraining orders. Now we work on the language between the mobile and the surveillance cameras, so that incidents are detected. In Cornellà, 30% of our attentions are made through this application. That is why it is already a system. And now the foundation has reached an agreement with Siemens for more powerful coverage.
Any concrete results? This system, a work of years, has made the technical field has improved and serves to prevent and even anticipate conflict situations. And there have been arrests in municipalities for acts committed in others thanks to this technology. This can happen on a metropolitan scale. Police coordination already exists. But if we expand it we can detect that in several places there is a phenomenon on which we must act.
You spoke of making a map of unsafe spaces, of guaranteeing lighting. Years ago we would not have considered that our cities are unsafe for women. At one in the morning, the security we feel is not the same as that felt by our colleagues. This forces us to propose a different urbanism, an urbanism that takes into account the safety of women, that protects them, that eliminates dark, hidden spaces. Just as at the time we began to take accessibility into account. Lighting linked to technology: we can have a street lit up when someone passes by and turn it off when they have passed. What is interesting is that between now and the end of the mandate we will have a well-defined content folder so that in the next four years we can begin to develop this comprehensive system of security and metropolitan coexistence.
“Years ago we would not have considered that our cities are unsafe for women”
Has a dialogue begun with the rest of the mayors? I have worked on the proposal with some mayors and this week I spoke with the ‘conseller’ (Joan Ignasi Elena, head of the Interior in the Catalan Government) and we agreed to continue talking.
Is putting Barcelona into this system easy? I have talked about it with Albert Batlle and he has already stated that he agrees with the system. We all see that the coordinations are positive. That in some issues you have to act beyond your local area. My mother gets lost, and if she is monitored and goes to Esplugues, she finds her. If she goes to Barcelona, no, because she is not in the system. It is not a minor aspect. The comprehensive security system allows you that. The other day in Vic a girl on a scooter ran into another of hers who asked her to stay with her because a man was chasing her. The girl had the application, she called her and in two minutes the local police were there.
“My mother gets lost, and if she is monitored and she goes to Esplugues, she is found. If she goes to Barcelona, no, because she is not in the system”
In a pre-election year, will all this be easy?
I think so because there is nothing electoral about this proposal.
He defended the pact, in politics and cited as an example the one reached with Xavier Trias on the WBA law. Is it easier to agree and collaborate with Trias or Colau?
Trias and Colau? They are two totally different people. One more open and one more closed.
What do you think of the proposal that sometimes resurfaces from a direct election of the president of the AMB?
I believe that it would denature what is currently the Metropolitan Area. I would be more paralyzed.
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Is coexistence with groups going well in the AMB?
I think it’s going well. In all the houses there are discrepancies but the important thing is the result.