British police in Magaluf branded ‘a joke’, but crime is down

Magaluf says a crackdown on antisocial behaviour is paying off, despite criticism of the Foreign Office decision to send two British officers to police the Spanish resort.

Midseason figures show crime rates are down 87%, 50% fewer guests are being expelled from hotels for bad behaviour, and there have been 50% fewer cases of tourists falling from balconies.

A deliberate effort by the destination to shift its market has led to a 9% drop in the number of young holidaymakers (16 to 25-year-olds) and to a 3.2% rise in families and a 2% climb in couples aged 30 years and over.

The resort is now less dependent on British and Russian tourists and has seen an increase from Italian, German, Portuguese and Swedish holidaymakers.

Tougher fines for balconing (jumping from balconies into pools), urinating in public and being naked in Magaluf were introduced last year after widespread publicity surrounding a video that showed a British teenage girl performing a sex act on 24 men in a bar during a pub crawl.

Drinking in the streets is now banned between 10pm and 8am and authorities are controlling the size of groups taking part in pub crawls.

The rules have been backed up by a greater presence of both Spanish and, more recently, British police.

Two West Midlands police officers have been sent this week by the Foreign Office on a two-week trial to assist the Spanish police patrolling the airport, beaches and town centre, particularly the notorious Punta Ballena party strip, but tourists say they’ve arrived too late in the season, which kicks off in May.

Also, their shifts finish at 10pm while most of the trouble happens late at night and into the early hours. Police sent to Spanish resorts from other countries, including Germany and Italy, have operated 24-hour shifts.

One of the British officers, PC Martina Anderson, 44, has also been criticised for boasting on Facebook of getting drunk while off-duty in the resort. Some UK newspapers have branded the British police presence in Magaluf  ‘a joke’.

However, latest figures from Magaluf show a fall in robberies, prostitution, hawking and drug dealing, with three arrests compared to 23 in 2014.

Meanwhile, hotels are moving away from all-inclusive packages, which currently account for around 30% of the Magaluf hotel market.

"Following a greater willingness for guests to spend more, hotels are improving the quality of their complimentary facilities, which are more aligned with a higher standard of hotel guest," said the Magaluf Hotel Association.

"The typical Magaluf tourist is steadily being replaced by families and more mature holidaymakers, which is affecting the season in two ways; firstly, by causing a fall in hotel occupancy (around 4% less in July 2015 than July 2014), but optimising at the same time the balance between occupancy and prices, in which an increase of 5-8% in prices lowers temporarily room occupancy but, in turn, helps to change the mix of customer profiles."

There has been a 6.2% drop in British visitors, although they still represent 55% of the estimated 1.5 million stays up to July 2015.

A 56% drop of the Russian market, attributed to the country’s current financial climate, and to a lesser extent the drop of the Spanish market (8.5%), have been offset by the growth of the Italian market (34%), Portuguese (21%), Germans (7.85%), and Swedish (8.8%).