Private security guards allowed to arrest and identify people in public
Private security guards allowed to arrest and identify people in public
PRIVATE security guards now have the jurisdiction to identify, search and arrest people in public – duties that until now have only ever been carried out by the police.
It would also mean they had the legal power to arrest a person at a sports event, in a shopping precinct or practically anywhere public without having to call the police to do so.
The new Private Security Law has been amended over 70 times already but now has votes in favour from the PNV and the CiU, although the socialists and left-wing Izquierda Plural are against it, considering it would merely lead to privatisation of State protection services.
According to the PP government, however, it is merely to allow security guards to carry out their job effectively and help the police in their own, rather than leading to an overlap of duties or the traditional police forces becoming obsolete.
The new law is merely aimed at updating existing legislation, which has not been touched since 1992.
