Visited by Police

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ferroboat

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We are in the Marina at Moana, Ria De Vigo and have been visited by Police twice in a week. They didn't want to come on board, just politely asked to see only our passports and no other documents. One of them moved away a short distance out of earshot and appeared to make a phone call and then returned and nodded to the other who was chatting to us about the weather. All very friendly, they returned our passports, said it was just routine. They were not guardia civil or police localia, they were in dark blue uniforms with baseball type caps, and just the insignia Policia on their shirts.
They did not ask us anything about our travelling plans. Anyone had similar experiences in Northern Spain? We just wondered what was going on.
 
ferroboat said:
We are in the Marina at Moana, Ria De Vigo and have been visited by Police twice in a week. They didn't want to come on board, just politely asked to see only our passports and no other documents. One of them moved away a short distance out of earshot and appeared to make a phone call and then returned and nodded to the other who was chatting to us about the weather. All very friendly, they returned our passports, said it was just routine. They were not guardia civil or police localia, they were in dark blue uniforms with baseball type caps, and just the insignia Policia on their shirts.
They did not ask us anything about our travelling plans. Anyone had similar experiences in Northern Spain? We just wondered what was going on.
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Probably not a lot. As they said just routine, but more likely them justifying their existance. What makes me laugh is that they just use scraps of paper
and backs of fag packets to record your details on :D
The other week in Alcoutim we had no less than 9 coppers visit the pontoon we were on. They did exactly as what happened to you. They only checked our details & didn't bother with the other boats, hence my belief they were justifying their existnce & jobs.

Bom Dia :D
 
The police visit every new boat in Cartagena within a few hours of arrival.
I suspect it's to do with tightening up border controls. Quite friendly and just passport inspection.
 
That sounds like the National Police (Fronteras dept) , who also have border control responsibilities.
 
I spotted a Fronteras van here in marina Davila a couple of days ago and that's only 3-4 miles from OP. First time we'd seen them this year, perhaps they are going around Vigo at present. We'd had the boat lifted and didn't get a visit.

Adouanas visited us about 4 times this year but only boarded once but we did collect a nice sheaf of forms by end of season. First visit was Baiona and we told them we'd come from Moana. One officer said that was correct as he lived there and had seen us at anchor for a few days. Nice that they could confirm our route and knew we were just cruising around before they even boarded us. All very friendly but I got a shock when they were leaving and warned of winds up to 60 that night. After a few seconds of panic, I remembered that they'd mean 60 km/h instead of knots.
 
It's getting more common. I was interviewed in La Restinga, El Hierro, by the Guardia Civil recently. It is all routine and polite.
 
Ferretti 881RPH Dreamer said:
They are more polite to people than the dickheads in this countries police force thats for sure..
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your comment suggests you have had a bad experience. we have only experienced politeness from UK police/border control including being used as a training exercise off the dorset coast when a rib suddenly appeared out of the mist with 4 burly officers fully kitted up but two turned out to be rather attractive young ladies.
 
ferroboat said:
We are in the Marina at Moana, Ria De Vigo and have been visited by Police twice in a week. They didn't want to come on board, just politely asked to see only our passports and no other documents. One of them moved away a short distance out of earshot and appeared to make a phone call and then returned and nodded to the other who was chatting to us about the weather. All very friendly, they returned our passports, said it was just routine. They were not guardia civil or police localia, they were in dark blue uniforms with baseball type caps, and just the insignia Policia on their shirts.
They did not ask us anything about our travelling plans. Anyone had similar experiences in Northern Spain? We just wondered what was going on.
Click to expand...

As per others - probably nothing at all. In the UK, the police don't talk to you unless Something's Going On. But in mainland Europe, the police and customs are very happy to just do routine things. I was stopped at 2am by customs in a country road, had to unload almost everything in the car... and put it all back. Not particularly searching for anything, and they explained that it wasn't like in the uk, this was just "routine". 6-person team on night shift going through a family car for almost two hours... no reason at all.

So i reckon it's cos you're a foreign flagged vessel, and there's at least two groups of police patrolling the general area. They've both checked your papers, not looking for anything in particular ( nor indeed, necessarily being able to understand the documents they're looking at...) and if there's a roster change there'll be a third bunch along next week, too. They want to be able to demonstrate that they've "checked" things, but really don't want to hunt down or discover any bad guys - they're delighted when all is in order- it's not a "waste of time" at all, as it would be with UK cops who are much keener for some "action".

I think the main motivation for mainland european types to join the police/customs is the job security, essential part of the community, holidays, pension. Not cos they really wanted to be in the armed forces but were too fat/short/unfit, or didn't want to leave home, or didn't want to get shot at much, as in the uk.
 
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