Sagunto police add five new vehicles in a €200,000 investment
Sagunto's Policía Local (local police) has added three SUVs and two motorbikes, a nearly €200,000 investment aimed at boosting its operational capacity across the municipality.
Sagunto's Policía Local (local police force) has added five new vehicles to its fleet, with a total investment of close to €200,000. The move aims to strengthen equipment and technology across several units of the force and improve its response capacity throughout the municipality.
The new fleet is made up of three Ford Kuga SUVs with non-plug-in hybrid technology, leased on a four-year contract, and two Honda NC750X motorbikes, bought outright by the City Council. The three Kugas are split between the Citizen Security Unit, the Traffic and Districts Unit and the Reports and Procedures Unit: one has 4x4 drive and the other two have 4x2, matching the needs of each service.
The cars carry unit-specific markings, up-to-date computer and communication systems, and operational equipment such as defibrillators (DESA), portable warning beacons, a fire extinguisher, torches and traffic cones. They will be used for patrolling and prevention, citizen security, traffic duties, incident response and processing police reports.
The two motorbikes join the Traffic and Districts Unit's motorcycle group. Built as street-legal crossover/trail bikes, they combine agility in urban areas with the range for longer routes, and carry emergency lights and sirens, plus a tablet linked to the police computer system and a printer that let officers handle paperwork directly in the field.
The new vehicles also arrive at a time of change for the municipality: industrial growth linked to projects such as the PowerCo battery gigafactory, ArcelorMittal's activity and port traffic is adding pressure on mobility and road safety across the whole municipality, from Sagunto's historic centre to Puerto de Sagunto. A renewed, better-equipped fleet lets the Policía Local reach urban areas, industrial estates and the port access roads more quickly.
Fitting the vehicles with semi-automatic defibrillators (DESA) is no minor detail: it lets officers act as first responders to a cardiac arrest anywhere in the municipality before an ambulance arrives. The leasing model chosen for the three SUVs, on a four-year contract, is common practice when renewing municipal fleets, since it keeps vehicles up to date with more predictable maintenance costs than buying outright. The two motorbikes, by contrast, were bought outright, a more common approach for lower-cost vehicles with a longer service life.
The fleet renewal comes alongside a growing Policía Local headcount, so the extra staff is being matched with more equipment for day-to-day work. Sagunto's mayor, Darío Moreno, linked the new vehicles to the goal of a better-prepared force with greater capacity to respond to residents' needs. The councillor for Local Police, María José Carrera, said the choice of versatile, tech-equipped vehicles is part of the force's modernisation.
For residents, the renewed fleet should translate over time into faster response times for traffic incidents, public safety issues or medical emergencies, particularly in areas further from the town centre or in the industrial estate, where how quickly a patrol arrives depends largely on vehicle condition and availability.
Fleet renewals of this kind usually come with a generational shift in the vehicles available, replacing older, less efficient units with models that have more modern engines and lower fuel consumption. For the hybrid Ford Kugas, non-plug-in technology cuts fuel use on urban routes without needing charging points — a practical advantage for a fleet that has to be available around the clock.
How visible the Policía Local is on the streets is also one of the biggest factors shaping residents' sense of safety, alongside response times and how quickly incidents get resolved. A larger fleet, better spread across the different units, makes it easier to plan patrol shifts with more flexibility, both in Sagunto's town centre and in Puerto de Sagunto and the municipality's outlying areas.
With the five new vehicles, the City Council expects to improve mobility, prevention, surveillance and response capacity across its police units, strengthening the Policía Local's presence throughout the municipality.
The City Council has not said whether the new vehicles will come with specific training for officers on the new technology involved, such as the tablets linked to the police system or the Kugas' hybrid drivetrains, although fleet renewals of this kind usually include familiarisation sessions before the units enter service.
According to Sagunto City Council.