Spanish police pay action gives motorists a free ride
Traffic police in Spain are giving offending motorists warnings instead of fines as part of a dispute over a pay cut.
Their unofficial action is raising concerns about whether road safety is being jeopardised in one of Europe’s top tourism destinations. The number of traffic deaths last weekend, for instance, was the highest so far this year.
In June, the first month after government salaries were reduced 5% as part of an austerity plan, the number of traffic tickets handed out by patrol officers fell by nearly 50% compared to the same period in 2009, according to figures from the Civil Guard highway department.
Official numbers for July are not yet out but news reports say the go-easy policy has continued.
The protest – which the Spanish press has called a strike of “downed pens” - is another problem for a beleaguered government whose summer was first hit by a threatened strike by air traffic controllers whose salaries were also cut in the name of fiscal discipline.
The traffic police have officially admitted they are going easy on drivers, but their boss acknowledges it is happening.
An official with the Independent Civil Guard Association, which acts like a pseudo-guild because the Civil Guard is a paramilitary organisation and cannot join a union, said the protest began spontaneously after the pay cut was announced, and then spread.
“There is a generalised bad feeling,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity saying he feared reprisal if he were named.
The 10,000-strong Civil Guard traffic department was already annoyed because its officers earn less than other police in Spain – their salaries run from €1,500 to €1,800 a month – and have not seen the extra staff promised by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Then in April the department circulated a money saving memo urging officers to use their radios more, rather than mobile phones, and spend more time parked watching for traffic offences instead of being on patrol all the time.
The pay cut seems to have been the last straw, said the association official. “It is only natural,” he said. “Those of us who work in traffic need to be stimulated.”
Last weekend, road deaths went from an average of about 20 to 29, and alarm bells went off amid worries that the police go-slow is encouraging Spaniards to drive less carefully.
The government’s top official for traffic safety said no, arguing that, statistically, that number is not significant because it refers to too-short a time span.
