Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): La policía cierra la calle por seguridad.

In Spanish la policía refers to the police force or law‐enforcement institution as a whole. Although English uses a plural verb (“the police are…”), Spanish treats la policía as a singular, feminine noun. You only switch to plural (los policías) when you mean individual officers.

Key points:

La policía = “the police” (the department or force)
Feminine singular, so verbs and articles agree accordingly (e.g., la policía cierra).
To talk about officers:
• el policía (male officer)
• la policía (female officer)
• los policías (multiple officers)

Why is the verb cierra in the third-person singular, and not cierran?

Because la policía is singular, we use the third-person singular form of cerrar: cierra. If you said los policías cierran, you’d be treating “police officers” (a plural noun) as the subject, but here the subject is the singular institution (la policía).

Why do we say por seguridad instead of para seguridad? What’s the difference between por and para here?

Por introduces a reason or cause: “because of security.”
Para usually indicates purpose or goal: “in order to.”

In safety contexts, Spanish almost always uses por to express the reason behind a preventive action:
• La policía cierra la calle por seguridad. (“The police close the street for safety reasons.”)

Using para here would sound unnatural because you’re not talking about the intended outcome (“in order to have security”), but the cause or motivation.

Are there alternative ways to say “for security reasons”?

Yes, you can expand it:

por motivos de seguridad
por razones de seguridad
Both mean “for security reasons,” and they sound a bit more formal or explicit.

Why is there an accent on the í in policía, and how do you pronounce it?

Spanish accent rules: words ending in a vowel, –n or –s are stressed on the penultimate syllable by default. Without an accent, policia would be pronounced po-LI-cia. The written accent on the í tells you to stress that syllable: po-li-CI-a.

Pronunciation guide:
• po (like “po” in “polite”)
• li-CI-a: stress on CI (like “see-ah”)
So it’s /po-li-ˈsi-a/.

Could you use other verbs like bloquear or cortar instead of cerrar?

Yes, depending on the region and nuance:

bloquear la calle – to block the street (emphasizes obstruction)
cortar la calle – to cut off the street (common in colloquial contexts, e.g., protests)

But cerrar la calle is the standard, neutral way to say “close the street” (e.g., for police, roadworks).

If the street closure is happening right now, can I use a different tense?

Absolutely. You can use:

Present progressive: La policía está cerrando la calle por seguridad. (emphasizes the action is in progress)
Present perfect: La policía ha cerrado la calle por seguridad. (the street is already closed)

Choose based on whether you want to stress “ongoing action” (está cerrando) or “completed action” (ha cerrado).