Crime in Barcelona: Robberies down, but knife use up

BarcelonaIn Barcelona, a lot happens every day. The police receive almost 500 calls a day and make 83 arrests., There are eight demonstrations and protests, and up to 19 traffic accidents. In the six months from January to June 2025, 83,646 crimes were committed, the vast majority (up to 71,555 incidents) against property. Following the trend of recent reports, the Catalan capital continues to see a decline in burglaries and thefts, which have fallen by 34.5% and 6.8% respectively, and now represent the lowest figures in recent years. Also falling are robberies with violence and intimidation (-3.2%), fraud (-3.5%), and vehicle thefts (-9.7%). On the other hand, according to police data, neither crimes against persons, which rose by 2.8%, nor crimes linked to drug trafficking (+26.9%), are being reduced.

These are the main conclusions of the Barcelona Security Council meeting held this Monday at City Hall. Overall, crime fell by 8.8% and arrests rose by 5.4%; a combination of factors that authorities consider a positive indicator. In fact, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) and the Guardia Urbana (Urban Police) affirm that Barcelona leads the decline in crime in Catalonia, as the average decrease nationwide is 4.6%. "The strategy is bearing positive fruit; we are heading in the right direction; we are changing the trend," stated Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni at the press conference following the meeting. "The strategy is appropriate and we must consolidate it," said the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, along the same lines, stressing the importance of also trying to improve the perception of security.

The drop in crime is also slightly reflected in the perception of security: according to the latest Barcelona Victimization Survey presented within the framework of the Security Board, 28.6% of the population says they will have experienced a crime by 2024. Regarding the security rating in the city, at the time of the survey5, the neighborhoods were given a score of 6.3. These figures represent a slight improvement compared to the previous survey, which placed victimization at 29.8% and the rating at 5.3 in the city and 6.1 in the neighborhoods.

Multi-recidivism

Property crimes are closely linked to the phenomenon of multiple recidivism, which the police are attempting to address with a specific plan. Within the framework of Operation Kanpai, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have detected 280 individuals with multiple arrests, bringing the total to 1,776 arrests in Barcelona and 5,284 crimes attributed to them, mainly thefts and robberies with violence or intimidation. The five offenders with the most arrests this year have accumulated 123 and 260 total criminal records. Last year, 452 multiple recidivists were detected, and now that number has practically halved.

In this sense, in the first six months of the year, crimes associated with the phenomenon of multiple recidivism have decreased by 10%. Collboni celebrated the fact that there hadn't been so few thefts in the city since 2015, when there were 120,000 fewer inhabitants and half the number of visitors. Parlon noted that it will also be important to ensure that the repeated offenders expelled from Barcelona do not spread to other parts of Catalonia.

Injuries and assaults

According to police data, crimes such as assault and battery remain on the rise, up 7.2% in six months, while homicides have fallen from ten to five. Regarding gender-based violence, sexual assaults have increased by 30%, rising from 88 to 115, and domestic abuse has remained virtually unchanged, with a slight increase of 2.2%. However, the resolution rate of investigations has increased, standing at over 85%, and the number of arrests (up 31%) and investigations (up 15%). Furthermore, although reports of sexual assault have increased by 17% in the first half of 2025, the head of the Mossos d'Esquadra in Barcelona, Commissioner Estruch, has clarified that the number of cases has not increased in these first six months. In other words, the increase in reports is due to the greater willingness of victims to report.

White weapons

Concern over the rise in bodily harm crimes is compounded by the conflict over the proliferation of knives, as incidents involving knives have soared by 38%. To address this situation, police activity has increased, and arrests related to bodily harm crimes have risen by 29.7%. Within the framework of the DAGA plan, a total of 1,844 knives have been seized, representing a 48.5% increase compared to the same period in 2024. Patrol hours and the number of people identified have doubled. Likewise, attacks against law enforcement officers increased by 21.2%.

Drugs

During 2025, 71 drug sales and consumption locations were dismantled in Barcelona. Of these, thirty homes were returned to their owners. In total, 1,280 arrests were made for public health offenses, representing a 23.9% increase compared to 2024. During this period, 217 kg of marijuana buds, 122 kg of hashish, 4.3 kg of cocaine, 2.66 kg of methamphetamine, 323 g of ketamine, 300 grams of crack cocaine, and 534 grams of heroin were also seized. However, crime continues to rise, up 26.9%.

Urban Police and Prosecutor's Office

Within the framework of the security meeting, it was also agreed that Barcelona City Council and the Provincial Prosecutor's Office will sign an agreement to create a unit of the Urban Guard (Guadalupe Urbana) attached to the Public Prosecutor's Office as a police support unit acting as a judicial police unit. Another notable area discussed at the meeting was the fight against terrorism: patrol hours increased by 28% and the number of identified units increased by 98%.

The meeting was chaired by the city's mayor, Jaume Collboni, and was attended by the regional minister of the Interior and Public Security, Núria Parlon; the deputy mayor for Prevention, Security, Coexistence, and Internal Affairs, Albert Batlle; the director general of the police, Josep Lluís Trapero; the Spanish government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto; commissioner Alícia Moriana, deputy executive chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police). The meeting was attended by the head of the Barcelona Urban Police, Chief Superintendent Pedro Velázquez; the commissioner of the Barcelona Metropolitan Police Region, Montserrat Estruch; and the director of the Civil Protection, Prevention, Firefighting, and Rescue Service, Sebastià Massagué. The meeting was also attended by other police forces and representatives from the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor's Office.