A thousand police officers saturate the streets and arrest a hundred repeat offenders.

BarcelonaThe sense of impunity is sometimes demonstrated with small gestures. Such was the case this Friday afternoon of a nineteen-year-old repeat offender with twelve prior convictions when the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) arrested and searched him on Barcelona's Rambla del Raval. While waiting to be searched, he lifted his shirt and said, smiling and sarcastically, that he was carrying a gun. It was a plastic gun, enough of a toy that no officer would be surprised. However, he ended up losing it, and it will end up destroyed at the police station. This scene took place amidst a massive identification of people by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), the National Police, and the Guardia Urbana (Urban Guard). They found drugs, but no one was arrested. It was all part of the police's new offensive against repeated offending., which not only seeks to stop, but precisely to end, the feeling of insecurity felt by residents and the impunity felt by thieves like the nineteen-year-old repeat offender. In 2024, in Barcelona alone, police arrested 452 repeat offenders who committed up to 9,114 crimes.

As explained by ARA this Sunday in a dossier, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Spanish police) launched a new plan this Friday to combat repeated crimes, particularly those related to property crimes such as theft and robbery. The operation resulted in 105 arrests and 330 charges. It's called plan Kanpai, and it's an evolution of what had been implemented until now, the Tremall plan. The name wasn't chosen at random. Kanpai is the word the Japanese use for toast. Quickly translated, it means we empty the glassFor the Mossos, Kanpai means We empty Catalonia of repeat offenders. In fact, this is one of the new features of the new plan, which comes after an extensive analysis by the leadership, led by Mayor Toni Rodríguez: it is not only necessary to attack multiple reoffending in Barcelona, ​​​​but in the entire metropolitan area and, eventually, in the entire country. Therefore, the first day of Kanpai This has meant that more than a thousand police officers have taken to the streets of Barcelona, ​​​​but also of Badalona, ​​​​Hospitalet de Llobregat and El Prat Airport, all with the coordination of local police forces and the National Police.

The objective of the new plan is to "occupy public space to increase prevention and response on the streets." This was stated by Superintendent Rafa Tello, head of Citizen Security for the Barcelona Metropolitan Police Region, in his first address to his officers this Friday morning, before leaving the police station. It's a message to thieves, but also to the public. For the Mossos d'Esquadra, the downward trending data doesn't match the rising sense of insecurity. And seeing more patrols saturating the streets is one of the solutions, they believe. That's why public order units, the Arro (Arro Police) and the Mobile Brigade, have also been incorporated into the plan.

Plot twists

It was a device that began early in the morning and lasted 24 hours. ARA was able to witness part of this operation, which descended on the metro and also stopped in the most troubled areas of the city, such as Rambla del Raval. Bars were emptied, and lines of people were lined up against the walls in a single batch. The responses of those identified were repeated. Some said they did it "for their face." Others, like the nineteen-year-old, smiled and took it as a joke. And a few others experienced it with unease, even though they weren't carrying anything suspicious. There were uniformed officers, but also plainclothes ones. The so-called ferrets, who patrol incognito, following the most frequent thieves. Unexpected incidents often arise on the street, and one of them was the theft of a cell phone that was still receiving a signal. We had to go find where the signal was coming from.

The most privileged view of the entire operation was at the Sant Martí police station, where a coordination center with multiple screens was set up to review all the cameras in the area. The operation flooded the streets, the metro, and also the roads, with checks at the entrances to various points in Barcelona and its surrounding areas. During the night, the operation will focus primarily on nightlife areas, with particular emphasis on the Port Olímpic. The fact that it has been expanded to the metropolitan area is also one of the key aspects of the plan: the police pressure implemented so far in Barcelona has, according to police sources, led to a shift in crime to the metropolitan area.

He Kanpai It's one of the Mossos d'Esquadra's main actions to try to curb multiple reoffending, although sources within the force admit that it's a multifaceted conflict, with a key social element and also a judicial obstacle, since the Penal Code isn't sufficiently updated and speedy trials are generally delayed. Therefore, police work on the streets will be accompanied by dialogue with all levels.