'Mobile police stations' launched in seven Spanish cities

The new hybrid iZ patrol cars – pronounced as 'ee-zeta', as their full title is i-ZETA, rather than as 'e-zee' – carry fingerprint readers for immediate identification, and equipment for scanning ID and other documents and analysing and receiving images, even in areas of little or no lighting.

Connected to Cloud technology and linked to a central database, they are able to read up to 400 car registration plates a minute and can work out who someone is, where they live and their history within microseconds.

Front and rear dashcams mean high-speed police chases such as those normally only seen on cop action films will become a reality as the cars the officers are in pursuit of can be traced and followed much more easily.

A central console with a 10” touch screen and an external keyboard in the passenger seat means police can carry out manual checks from their cars.

The Toyota Prius+ 'smart' cars mean a large amount of work normally carried out at desks in police station admin departments can be conducted on the road, so more officers can be out on the beat, helping increase security for the public.

So far, 10 of these cars have been launched in seven cities - Valencia, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla, Madrid, Zaragoza (Aragón), and Vigo (Pontevedra province, Galicia) – but by the end of next year, a total of 162 will be out on the streets across the whole of mainland Spain, its islands and enclaves.

Photograph by the National Police