The Chamber of Deputies approved the Municipal Security Law on Tuesday, strengthening municipalities' preventive role and granting new powers to inspectors, such as using tasers and seizing street vending. Security Minister Luis Cordero emphasized that the law sets standards without creating a municipal police. Mayors celebrated the approval as a win for municipalism.
The Municipal Security Law bill, introduced in May 2023, was dispatched by the Chamber of Deputies in its third constitutional process on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, after over two years of deliberation. The initiative amends Law No. 18.695 on municipalities to bolster the institutional framework for public security and crime prevention, recognizing inspectors as police auxiliaries without forming a municipal police force.
Security Minister Luis Cordero stated: 'What this bill does is regularize and establish a set of standards for the functioning of municipalities in municipal security matters, both in prevention and in auxiliary competencies with the police.' Undersecretary of Crime Prevention Carolina Leitao added that 'it is very important to recognize the preventive role that municipalities play in security matters.'
Key features include creating the Operational Security Committee led by the mayor, involving Carabineros, PDI, and the Public Ministry. It strengthens the Municipal Security Director position and updates the Communal Public Security Council and Plan. Municipalities can now hire security personnel under the Labor Code, and municipal associations can do so for preventive functions.
Inspectors will have autonomous duties such as preventive patrols, identity checks, seizure of street vending, victim assistance, and flagrant arrests. In collaboration with police, they will conduct joint patrols and monitor public alcohol consumption. They can use protective gear like bulletproof vests, pepper spray, and tasers, regulated by an executive decree. Firearms are prohibited.
The law incorporates Senate amendments, such as mandatory drug tests for mayors and council members, with job loss for unjustified positives. Surveillance systems are regulated to capture only images, not sounds.
Funding includes $5.1 billion from the Undersecretary of Crime Prevention for security equipment over three years, plus $208 million for a data platform. Mining royalties will supplement the Common Municipal Fund with billions annually until 2034. Mayors like Gustavo Alessandri, president of the Chilean Association of Municipalities, celebrated: 'Today Chile wins and municipalism wins.'
The Republican Party requested separate votes on articles about training and director distinctions, abstaining or voting against some, but all passed.
