The subdelegate of the Government in Pontevedra, Abel Losada, today highlighted the good figures of the province in terms of security after studying the data of penitentiary infractions of the province corresponding to the end of the year 2023 exposed in the Provincial Xunta of Security, which was held at the headquarters of the Subdelegation of the Government. The number of registered offences fell by 3.22% in the Civil Guard demarcation and by 0.51% in the National Police demarcation. The deputy delegate, who chaired his first Provincial Security Board to take office, stressed that it is necessary to take the data with “great prudence” both when they are “moderately positive”, as it happens now, and when they are negative.
Losada congratulated the heads of the State Security Forces and Corps in Pontevedra for their work throughout the year, such as the chief colonel of the Civil Guard Command in Pontevedra, Simón Venzal; the head of the National Police Force in Pontevedra, Juan José Díaz; the chief commissioner of the Vigo-Redonda Police Station, Ramiro Gómez, and the provincial head of the Civil Traffic Guard, Captain Antonio Pérez Piteira.
The subdelegate stressed after analyzing the data in the Provincial Xunta that the province of Pontevedra is safe and this is demonstrated again by the annual statistics and the comparison with the averages in Spain. This respect highlighted that the crime rate is 30.28 crimes per thousand inhabitants, well below the Spanish average, which is 36.9 per thousand inhabitants.
In addition, the predominant role of cybercrime was revived, mainly scams, although with irregular behavior in the province, since while it decreased in rural territory it increased in urban areas over the past year. Even so, the percentage of cybercrimes remained last year at 23%, well below the 30% that it reached in 2019, when almost one in three crimes was related to deception and scams through the internet.
It is a type of crime that is particularly difficult to investigate and clarify because of its international connections and the scant international cooperation of the countries in which this type of network is established. In addition, it was detected that there is a progressive “migration” of the mafias dedicated to drug trafficking in this type of criminal activity, since it is highly profitable. Abel Losada linked the fight against cybercrime with the new Cybersecurity Law announced yesterday by the Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function, José Luis Escrivá, which will be a new step to improve the response to attacks on companies and people. The future legal tetilla also foresees that INCIBE (National Cybersecurity Institute) will continue to train specialists in this field, including those responsible for the Security Forces and Corps.
The annual balance of the Civil Guard shows, in general, a small increase in minor crimes while reducing serious ones such as burglaries, which fall significantly, including burglaries in homes. Finally, there was an improvement in the police work of the Civil Guard with the improvement of the percentages of clarification of the prison violations investigated and the increase in the number of people detained.
The National Police noted an improvement in the rates of clarification, as well as in the number of people detained and especially highlighted the reduction in crimes against people, especially those of serious injuries. However, it expressed its concern about the progressive annual increase in the impact of nightlife, after the pandemic, on certain types of crimes against both property and people.