The congressional interior committee has approved a bill allowing authorised private-sector security personnel some of the same powers as the police, such as the right of arrest.
The basis of the proposed new legislation is in response to the need “to qualify the general principle of excluding private security from acting in public places, which in its current form is excessively rigid and has made more difficult or impeded the necessary authorization of services to the benefit of the public.”
The bill was approved by the ruling Popular Party and by the Catalan Ciu and Basque group PNV. The PSOE and IU opposed the new measures. The proposal will now go to the Senate for consideration.
Under the proposed bill, private-security services will, in certain situations and circumstances, get enhanced powers, such as the right to ask people to identify themselves and to detain them. Such situations and circumstances include at bank cash machines, at sporting and cultural events or any event held in public places and thoroughfares deemed of social importance.
The proposed legislation also allows private security guards to pursue, in public places, “delinquents caught in the act of committing a crime even in cases where the crime has nothing to do with the people or goods that they are watching over and protecting.” The bill also covers areas outside of prisons and detention centres.
The legislation follows in the wake of the planned Citizens Security Law, which will see heavy fines for citizens who take part in unauthorised protests or who cover up their faces at demonstrations.