Turning Cops' Worries into Local Issues: Municipal police agencies as key governance actors in the agenda-setting procedures in Spanish medium-sized cities.

• In Event: Urban safety and neighbourliness in Spanish medium-sized cities.

Abstract

Nowadays, a constellation of municipal police agencies operates throughout Spain. Their main task is to enforce municipal law. Thus, formally, each of them is under the authority of local governments, which are in charge of organising, monitoring, and setting its priority areas of action. Nonetheless, municipal police agencies constantly struggle to gain autonomy in their relations with other local actors, among which the press is of top interest.

Such relationships between municipal police and the local press tend to be informal, largely due to traditionally meagre concerns towards accountability, a situation that has led to the lack of professional spokespersons and press offices in local law enforcement agencies. In spite of this, these relations tend to be very fluid, with police officers and associations reporting the press about their interventions, and sharing other relevant information with them, both on a daily basis.

These relations enable municipal police associations to enjoy a privileged status when it comes to defending their professional interests, since they have privileged access to the press' loudspeakers. Moreover, when advocating for their professional interests before the press, municipal police associations deploy a set of techniques, such as raising awareness about certain topics of interest, launching public debates on the transformation of their duties and the update of their procedures, equipment and organisation, or publicising meritorious services. Each of this techniques is directed at getting community backup for their professional demands.

Based on a content analysis of local newspapers from ten medium-sized cities, this paper analyses the role of Spanish municipal police agencies in the local news worthiness and agenda-setting procedures, as well as the techniques performed by these actors with the aim of promoting their professional interests.

Author

• David José Soto Díaz, Universidade da Coruña