Barcelona, March 25, 2026 – Inma Sanz, Vice-Mayor of Madrid and Delegate for Security and Emergencies, participated today in the ‘Governance and Inter-administrative Coordination in Public Safety’ panel at the Local Security Congress in Barcelona. During her address, Sanz lauded the work of the Madrid Municipal Police, stating their role in guaranteeing security is “essential for the promise of freedom, opportunities, and connections that the city offers to be fulfilled.”
Madrid: A Safe City Facing New Challenges
Sharing the debate with Albert Batlle, Deputy Mayor for Prevention, Security, Coexistence, and Internal Affairs of the Barcelona City Council, and Asier Erkoreka, Director of Security Coordination for the Basque Government’s Department of Security, Sanz affirmed that Madrid “is living an extraordinary moment for many reasons, and the first of them is security.” She assured that “Madrid continues to be a safe city,” but acknowledged that “it faces great challenges.”
Consequently, she called for “a new security model, an adequate legal and institutional framework for the reality of the 21st century, designed with efficiency criteria and not political opportunism.” The delegate for Security and Emergencies of the capital indicated that to address large events or respond to climatic phenomena, among others, municipal police forces, to a greater or lesser extent, “have had to adapt to new needs, creating new ways of working and incorporating technologies.”
Call for Legal Framework Modernization
However, Sanz believes there is a limit, which is “the legal framework,” which should change to adopt “a new national security model that assigns a clear, differentiated, and sufficient role to each of the participating actors, including local police forces,” and “that allows them to respond to citizen demands and emerging threats with the greatest speed.”
More Personnel and Advanced Technology for Madrid’s Police
Sanz cited the example that “Madrid lacks 1,000 municipal police officers” due to “the replacement rate that weighs on city councils,” which has become “an obstacle that prevents adequately sizing the workforce.” Despite this, the Vice-Mayor recalled that since Almeida became mayor, 2,800 positions have been announced, and between 2026 and 2028, 1,400 police officers will be incorporated. “But we need the replacement rate to be eliminated to reach the goal of 7,000 personnel in the Municipal Police,” she stressed.
Furthermore, she highlighted the installation of surveillance cameras, with more than 400 already in the city, 120 of them equipped with artificial intelligence. She also emphasized other technologies in which Madrid has been a pioneer, such as ‘taser’ devices, weapon-detecting gloves, and surveillance drones.
Finally, the delegate for Security and Emergencies stated that “many of the challenges Madrid faces are shared with other large cities,” but she lamented that “unlike many capitals, we do not have a Capital Law that provides us with the financial and regulatory capacity we need to manage municipal services and, in particular, security.”
Local Security Congress: Addressing the Future of Urban Safety
The Local Security BCN Congress is a high-level professional forum dedicated to analyzing and projecting the future of local security in large cities. It starts from the premise that local police forces have assumed operational, technological, and management responsibilities that far exceed the existing legal framework, becoming strategic actors in urban governance.
The congress will address, among other issues, the review of the Spanish police model, technology at the service of command, critical scenario management, the human factor, and public legitimacy and communication in crises.
Source: madrid.es
