They put the speed camera right outside the town hall

2 August. We installed the speed camera on the straight stretch of the avenue, twelve metres from the town hall door. The mayor, Charo Pinilla, cuts the ribbon and tells the local press it is for the schoolchildren.

3 August. Eleven fines in fourteen hours. The first is the bread lorry; the fourth, the official car. Charo comes down at nine and leans on the post.

«Sanchís, you're the officer here, tell me the device can tell an emergency apart.»

«It can tell kilometres per hour apart.»

5 August. Forty-three fines. Charo suggests lowering the limit to thirty so the camera goes off less. I explain that this multiplies it. I explain it twice, and with a sheet of paper.

7 August. The camera fines the patrol car at fifty-two. That was me. I was on my way to check the camera.

9 August. Charo signs the order to move the device to the edge of the village, next to the water tank, where nobody goes past. She asks me to write it up in the report as «relocation on technical grounds».

10 August. Relocation on technical grounds. Since yesterday the camera has been pointing at a field of sunflowers and has not fined anybody. This morning, at the council meeting, Charo said the campaign had been a resounding success and that speed on the avenue was down by one hundred per cent.