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Pilgrim Police

Vonnie

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
French Way - 2015
Hello All

Back from another wonderful camino walking trip. Would anyone know the instagram handle for the Camino Pilgrim police?

thanks
 
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A friend, looking over my shoulder at the photos of members of the guardia, assured me that they were all very hot. I'm not sure if that information is of any use to pilgrims.

PS Their cavalry squad has its own tag, for horse-lovers - https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/escuadróndecaballería/
 
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I wish I'd known that, I was chatting to one of them on a quad last year on the Primitivo.
 
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Rolotom said:
What Pilgrim police??
Click to expand...
A detachment of the Guardia Civil who are tasked with ‘looking after’ (in a nice way) Peregrinos on the Frances and the Spanish section of the Portuguese. Very friendly and approachable. There aren’t that many of them and you’ll possibly come across them issuing safety advice. If they have a marked car with them they carry a sello in it.
 
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If I saw the police stopping at every pilgrim and asking them if everything was fine, I'd conclude that there had been some type of incident reported in the vicinity.
 
thejoker said:
If I saw the police stopping at every pilgrim and asking them if everything was fine, I'd conclude that there had been some type of incident reported in the vicinity.
Click to expand...
You would be wrong.
These are old-fashioned "community policing" cops, walking the beat.
We have a patrol in our area. They routinely stop and just greet people. They even come to our house and say hello, and inquire about how it's going hospitalero-wise. (they occasionally bring pilgrims to our house, when everything else is packed-out, or a big storm is coming. They also bring us stray dogs!)
 
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Good to find this out. Thanks for the info.
I've walked lots of Caminos over the years but have not encountered them yet. Having read from the opening chapters of your book how much stray dogs enjoy their time with you, these community police officers clearly do indeed provide an important service.
 
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I encountered them last summer when they were checking that people were OK and had water. Definitely looking after us.
 
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Sue127 said:
I encountered them last summer when they were checking that people were OK and had water. Definitely looking after us.
Click to expand...
They sound like the modern day version of the Knight's Templar / Hospitaller.
Can't believe I've missed noticing them so far.
 
Just finished Burgos to Sarria. Not a day went by without seeing one of their patrol cars going up and down the route, or just parked under a tree. As a woman on her own, I have never, ever, felt unsafe walking the Camino.
 
I don't use Instagram, so can't help you there.

However, I found some contact information on this webpage:
https://www.guardiacivil.es/es/prensa/noticias/7072.html

Here is a quick translation (with original Spanish following):
In the event of any incident that may arise during your pilgrimage, contact the emergency telephone number 112 or the Civil Guard 062, or through the free ALERTCOPS app, especially through the "Guardian Benemérito" functionality that allows you to geolocate the pilgrim who activates it on a voluntary basis, allowing the sharing of their last 10 positions -sent and registered automatically by the App- in a specific operational center for coordination and monitoring of the Civil Guard, active 24 hours/7 days. In addition, an informative message is sent to those pilgrims using Alercotcops, with the telephone contact of the Civil Guard (062) accompanied by a message with safety advice. Instructions for using this application at the link www.guardiacivil.es/es/servicios/consejos and at the link https://alertcops.ses.mir.es/miarertcops/


Ante cualquier incidencia que le pueda surgir durante su peregrinación contacte con el teléfono de emergencias 112 o de la Guardia Civil 062, o a través de la app gratuita ALERTCOPS, especialmente a través de la funcionalidad “Guardián Benemérito” que permite geolocalizar al peregrino que la active de forma voluntaria, permitiendo compartir sus 10 últimas posiciones –enviadas y registradas de manera automática por la App- en un centro operativo específico de coordinación y seguimiento de la Guardia Civil, activo en modo 24 horas/7 días. Además se envía un mensaje informativo a aquellos peregrinos usuarios de Alercotcops, con el contacto telefónico de la Guardia Civil (062) acompañado de un mensaje con consejos de seguridad. Instrucciones de uso de esta aplicación en el enlace www.guardiacivil.es/es/servicios/consejos y en el enlace https://alertcops.ses.mir.es/miarertcops/
 
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When I was 18 years old (it couldn't have been that long ago, although Franco was still in power...), I hitchhiked all around Spain. Once I got picked up by a small car with four Guardia Civiles, wearing those strange tricornio hats. I sat between two of them in the back seat, who were drumming on their machine guns on their laps, along with the music on the radio. I was sure I would be riddled with bullets at some point. They couldn't have been more than 17 years old.
 
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Way back in 2019, we were walking between Navarette and Najera and had opted not to take the route via Ventosa, which most pilgrims took. It meant following a (Camino marked) country road along side the motorway for a short way, 3-4kms from memory but saved a couple of km by the time the two paths rejoined.

About half way along, we were approached by an oncoming police car, who said that they were just checking that we were okay and knew where we were going, which we did. We thought that it was odd that they were checking. After they left us they drove on and stopped at a group of 4 or 5 pilgrims a few hundred metres behind us.

Wish I had thought to ask for a sello!
 
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