More video surveillance in Barcelona: there will be 99 new cameras in five conflict points
The City Council wants to install this year the devices in the Pegaso Park, in the Carmel bunkers and in the Encants Market
BarcelonaBarcelona City Council continues with its plan of deployment of video surveillance cameras in points it considers sensitive for the city's security. This Tuesday, the Deputy Mayor for Security, Albert Batlle, announced the installation of these devices in five more areas: El Born (where there will be 9 devices), the Bunkers del Carmel (11), the Olympic Ring (30), Fort Pienc (30), with special emphasis on the Mercat dels Encants, and Parc de la Pegaso (19), where at the beginning of July they killed a teenager. The forecast is that the 99 cameras will be operational before the end of the year.
"The priority is to activate these tools where they can provide the most preventive and operational effectiveness," Batlle has defended. According to the municipal government, the deployment of these devices, endorsed by a commission chaired by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), is carried out with criteria of "necessity, proportionality, and minimal intrusion into private life." The choice of areas is based on various criteria, but it is primarily based on the concentration of people, both for the "celebration of major events" and for "criminal activities." Batlle assures that this reinforcement will be a help for police interventions.
The 99 new cameras correspond to phases 2 and 3 of the Municipal Videovigilance Plan. The City Council has already put into operation 26 new cameras in Plaça de Catalunya and along the Front Marítim during the first phase of the plan. In addition, works are underway to install six cameras on Avinguda de la Catedral, and work has begun to deploy twenty cameras in Plaça Reial. The council still wants to install more cameras, but first, authorization from the Department of the Interior is required. Among the areas pending this authorization are zones in Nou Barris, such as Parc de la Guineueta, Plaça d'Àngel Pestaña, and Plaça Roja, and in the city center, such as Plaça Universitat, located on the border between Eixample and Ciutat Vella.
"They do not replace police presence"
The plan foresees reaching 500 new cameras distributed in 34 spaces in all districts before 2027. With the 26 already incorporated in Plaça de Catalunya and the Front Marítim, the city currently has 186 operational cameras. When the entire deployment is completed, the network will reach around 660 cameras. According to Batlle, this quantitative leap in terms of video surveillance is a step towards a "selective model", not "mass surveillance". When the four planned phases are completed, the cameras will cover approximately 5.16% of the total public space in Barcelona.
The Security Lieutenant also remarked that with the cameras they do not intend to replace the police: "Surveillance cameras do not replace police presence, but rather complement it". The council states that they have a double function. On the one hand, they act as a preventive and deterrent element against criminal or uncivil conduct and, on the other hand, they can facilitate police investigations and the collection of evidence when serious incidents occur.
The municipal government defends that all these deployments are subject to legal controls. "They are carried out with full legal guarantees and with absolute respect for fundamental rights," assured Batlle. Batlle assured ARA that the system does not incorporate facial recognition technologies or any identification system based on artificial intelligence. In fact, "there is no plan to incorporate it soon," he admitted. The monitoring of images, therefore, remains in the hands of physical persons.
The deployment is part of a broader security strategy by the City Council, which combines technology with increased police presence and other measures. The council includes the progressive increase of the Urban Guard's staff, the Visibility Plan, the Office Attached to the Prosecutor's Office of the Urban Guard, the Druid Plan against drug trafficking and consumption in public spaces and the new coexistence ordinance.