Barcelona City Council has invested over 1.2 million euros in renovation work on this building, which up to now had been the headquarters of Barcelonès County Council. The new facilities have 2,300 square metres at their disposal, distributed between 5 floors, as well as a ground floor, a basement and capacity for as many as 450 officers.

Meanwhile, the station located on the Rambla, number 43, far from losing any of its police functions, will be integrating the force’s other units and services. More specifically, it will set up a point for assisting victims of gender violence, remain the headquarters of the Guàrdia Urbana’s Group for Combating Human Trafficking and maintain its citizen complaints and reports service.

From now on, then, the Guàrdia Urbana will have three police buildings in the Ciutat Vella district: the joint office shared by the Guàrdia Urbana [Barcelona city police] and the Mossos d’Esquadra [Catalan regional police], located in Passeig de Joan de Borbó Comte de Barcelona, number 32, the police-station branches along the Rambla and the new police station in C/ Les Tàpies.

Close to 440 Guàrdia Urbana police officers are being deployed in Ciutat Vella, 50 of whom come from the Guàrdia Urbana’s latest batch of 238 new recruits who joined the force this September. The addition of these new recruits brings the total number of Guàrdia Urbana officers to 3,360.

Extra police bring down crime in Ciutat Vella by 22%

Thanks to the extra police and good coordination with the Mossos d’Esquadra, fewer crimes were reported in the Ciutat Vella district between the months of January and August 2022, representing a drop of 21.8%, totalling 28,222, compared to the same period in 2019.

As for types of crime, property offences dropped by 24.9%. Theft, representing some 68% of property offences committed in the district, dropped by 32.3%, and violent robberies on public highways by 5.9%.