Neighbourhood police teams were first established and rolled out by the City Police in 2017. The teams correspond to a security model which prioritises social harmony from a local perspective, helping to find the best dimension for tackling issues which arise. This makes for security policies which are more preventive than reactionary.

Members of the public thus become the main ally in analysing security and coexistence issues, as well as in planning solutions for them. Because of this, work is also done with the different municipal services in each district, to find cross-cutting solutions to complex problems.

The result is a working model for the City Police which entails a team of neighbourhood police officers for each district. Their goal is to be familiar with local organisations, facilities and people, to be able to anticipate issues and detect them early.

Citizens can approach their neighbourhood team when they need to ask questions relating to coexistence and security. Each team has a specific email address for this.

How are neighbourhood officers trained?

The training project for neighbourhood teams covers different areas, with the participation of experts from the City Police, the various municipal areas involved, universities and other external organisations.

Training methodology uses experience-based training and the joint construction of knowledge, through the analysis of real cases, learning based on problems, discussions, debates, role-play and simulations.

The goal is to foster basic professional skills for improving police practice from a local perspective:

• Boosting personal skills to enhance service for the public.
• Internalising the CASA working method (local, action, monitoring and evaluation) to streamline tasks and functions carried out by neighbourhood police teams.
• Promoting work based on empirical evidence to analyse and assess preventive police practices and resolve problems according to criteria on effectiveness, performance and efficiency.
• Training officers in basic concepts of police intelligence, analysis methods and processes for obtaining information on offenders’ behaviour and coexistence in public space.

To this end, this year’s training programme highlights different content shared across 22 training days: diversity and complexity of the city, management of police projects, communication and communication skills, environmental criminology and prevention of offences, evaluation of police activity and generation of police intelligence, technical statistics for analysis and the exploitation of anti-regulatory behaviour and local conflicts, transfer of knowledge and more.