Torrevieja crime down over 9% in 2026, mayor wants more police

Today's essentials (5 key points)

• Torrevieja recorded a broad drop in crime over the first seven months of 2026, with offences down more than 9% against the same period last year, according to El Periódico.
• The fall follows a record 2025, when the city logged 10,089 criminal offences, and has fuelled a public row between Mayor Eduardo Dolón and the central government's subdelegate over policing levels.
• Alicante's provincial PP leader Toni Pérez insisted the region will not give up on a second runway at Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport.
• AEMET has warned of temperatures reaching 43C on Wednesday and Thursday across Alicante province before the extreme heat eases.
• Calp's Local Police used a night drone to locate a lost 12-year-old girl in the Mola d'Oltà and guide firefighters to her rescue.

Today's essentials

Torrevieja crime down over 9% in 2026, mayor wants more police. Criminal offences in Torrevieja fell by more than 9% in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same stretch of 2025, according to El Periódico, even as Mayor Eduardo Dolón warns the city needs lasting police reinforcements rather than a seasonal top-up.

The improvement runs across most categories. El Periódico reports violent robberies down more than 20%, home burglaries down more than 11% and petty thefts (hurtos) down more than 8% between January and July, with online crime falling by close to 10%. Narrow the window to the peak season, from 1 June to 20 August, and offences were still down more than 7% on last summer, figures relayed by COPE Comunidad Valenciana.

That progress lands after a difficult year. TodoAlicante, citing Spanish Interior Ministry data, notes that Torrevieja closed 2025 with 10,089 recorded offences against 9,316 in 2024, an 8.3% rise and a record for the city, including 87 offences against sexual freedom (26 of them assaults with penetration), up 44.4% year on year. The two sets of numbers are not contradictory: one covers the whole of 2025, the other only the opening months of 2026, which is exactly why the political reading of them differs.

That gap has turned into a standoff. Subdelegado del Gobierno Manuel Pineda, backed by Guardia Civil colonel Francisco Poyato, says residents and visitors to Torrevieja can feel at ease and points to the 2026 decline, while Mayor Eduardo Dolón counters that Guardia Civil numbers have barely moved in ten years and that state funding has not kept pace with a city whose registered population sits around 106,350 (another count puts it above 110,000) and whose summer figure can top 400,000. Municipal data cited by El Periódico puts the average police response time at five minutes.

On the town hall's side, recruitment is being scaled up: the Local Police competition has grown from 44 to 63 places (45 base posts and 18 mobility posts) and is now at the medical-exam stage, according to Merca2 and El Periódico. The stated aim is to open 2027 with roughly 180 base officers plus about 30 command roles, taking the force past 200 in total.

What this means for you: if you live in or holiday around Torrevieja, the 2026 data points to fewer break-ins and street robberies than a year ago, and the authorities say you have no reason to feel unsafe. The Local Police recruitment drive, currently at medical examinations, is due to lift the force to around 180 base officers by the start of 2027 according to Merca2, so staffing should keep growing whatever the political noise. If home security matters to you, the sharp drop in burglaries is the figure worth watching over the coming months.

Weather today

Warm and overcast day across the Costa Blanca. Expect a warm, cloudy Monday 24 August across the Costa Blanca, with highs around 31C inland and on the Alicante coast and only a slim chance of rain, according to Open-Meteo.

In Alicante city, temperatures run from 24C overnight to 31C in the afternoon under overcast skies, with rain probability at 15% and wind up to 16 km/h. Inland around Pinoso the range is similar, 21C to 31C, with light rain risk (13%) and a slightly stronger breeze reaching 22 km/h. On the southern coast at Javea it stays milder and breezier, 25C to 29C with gusts up to 26 km/h. It is a day for light clothing, sunscreen and plenty of water, with the cloud cover taking a little edge off the midday heat; the sea breeze on the coast makes late afternoon the most comfortable time to be out.

Transport & traffic

• Alicante-Elche airport, a heavyweight for the region. Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández remains one of Spain's busiest airports, having passed the twelve-million-passenger mark, according to AlicanteOut. For anyone based on the Costa Blanca, that scale is what keeps a broad choice of direct routes, competitive fares and frequent connections within reach, whether you are flying home to family, travelling for work or picking up visitors. Those passenger numbers also underpin the tourism economy that supports many local jobs, from hospitality to retail along the coast.
• Second runway: Pérez says Alicante won't back down. Alicante provincial PP president Toni Pérez has said the region will not give up on a second runway at Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport, calling it a strategic project, according to elperiodic. A second runway would raise the airport's ceiling on flights and passengers, which matters directly to Costa Blanca residents who rely on it for travel home, business links and the visitor traffic that underpins many local jobs. With the airport already handling very high volumes, the political push signals that capacity, and the connections that come with it, will stay near the top of the provincial agenda.

Local news to know

• Dénia fire hero survived the DANA floods. Gorgui Lamine, the undocumented Senegalese man who climbed a burning block in Dénia to save a disabled resident and was later granted residency, also survived the 2024 DANA floods that devastated the La Torre district of Valencia where he now lives, La Marina Plaza reports.
• Night drone finds lost girl in Calp. Calp's Local Police used its UMAC drone unit to locate a lost 12-year-old at night in the Mola d'Oltà and guide firefighters to her, with the girl rescued in good condition from a hard-to-reach area, according to La Marina Plaza.
• AEMET warns of 43C midweek before heat eases. AEMET has flagged very adverse conditions with temperatures reaching up to 43C on Wednesday and Thursday across Alicante province, though the state weather agency expects the extreme heat to ease afterwards, as reported by the Olive Press.
• Torrevieja crime falls more than 9% in 2026. Torrevieja recorded a broad drop in crime over the first seven months of 2026, with offences down more than 9% on the same period last year, even as Mayor Eduardo Dolón and the central government's subdelegate clash over whether the city has enough police, according to El Periódico. The fall follows a record 2025, when Torrevieja logged 10,089 criminal offences. The improvement has not settled a running dispute over policing: the mayor wants more officers assigned to the city, while he and the central government's subdelegate disagree over whether current staffing is enough.

Tonight and tomorrow, the Costa Blanca

• Alicante floats extending the Tram to Elche. Alicante's new General Plan proposes extending the Tram to Elche along the A-79 corridor, according to TodoAlicante, a long-term project rather than an imminent change to your commute.

See the full agenda, tonight and tomorrow