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In Spanish towns and cities, the Policia Municipal (Municipal Police), also known as the ''Policia Local'' or ''Guardia Urbana'', is a police force organized at the municipal level. From 2010 to 2015 Spain has between 61,867 and 66,400 local police officers distributed among all the Autonomous Communities. Municipal police are authorized in every town and city of 5,000 or more people. The

Policía Municipal de Madrid The Policía Municipal de Madrid () is the municipal police force of Madrid. History The first written reference to an armed force under the protection of the city council named ''Alguacil'', dates back to 1202. The first city police force f ...

is the largest force and the

Guàrdia Urbana de Barcelona The Guàrdia Urbana (English: ''Urban Guard'') is the municipal police force for the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. History Originally it was formed in November 1843 as the "Municipal Guard". Although in 1907 it became the "Urban Guard". ...

is the second largest. In towns and villages that are too small to organize a municipal force, the function is performed by the

Guardia Civil The Civil Guard ( es, Guardia Civil, link=no; ) is the oldest law enforcement agency in Spain and is one of two national police forces. As a national gendarmerie force, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the au ...

or by the

Autonomous Community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

force. They are in some villages assisted by uniformed municipal employees with limited law enforcement authority called ''Vigilantes Municipales'', Although their powers are in most cases quite limited. The local police services of individual towns and cities supplement the work of the

National Police Corps The National Police Corps ( es, Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, link=no, CNP; ; also known simply as National Police, ) is the national civilian police force of Spain. The CNP is mainly responsible for policing urban areas, whilst rural policing ...

, dealing with such matters as traffic, parking, monitoring public demonstrations, guarding municipal buildings, and enforcing local ordinances. They also collaborate with the National Police Corps by providing personnel to assist in crowd control. Numbering about 37,000 individuals in 1986, municipal police officers are generally trained only with pistols and in a few smaller municipalities the local police do not routinely carry weapons whilst on normal duty. This is often the case where another, larger police force has a local station or barracks.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field%28DOCID+es0178%29

References

Municipal law enforcement agencies {{law-enforcement-agency-stub

See also

References