This Monday, the mayors of Porto and Lisbon defended the need to strengthen the municipal police and PSP in both cities, where they say their visibility has decreased.
After visiting Porto’s Integrated Management Center, where various municipal services operate, the two mayors, who met to discuss the situation in the municipal police, defended the need to strengthen personnel.
In Porto there are currently 200 officers assigned to the municipal police, but their effective strength should be 300.
“We know that the previous Minister of the Interior said that there would be increased staffing, but we do not know the schedule yet and we are waiting for this government to tell us what the possible schedule is,” the mayor said. Porto, Rui Moreira.
In the capital, the municipal police force has about 400 officers, but 600 are needed.
“We clearly need more municipal police in Lisbon and Porto,” added Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas.
While assuring that they were “in complete agreement” on the issue, the two mayors also defended the need to strengthen the PSP staff, believing that the visibility of these agents has decreased in recent years in the country’s two largest cities. .
“Today we feel in our cities, I would like to repeat this to the Minister of the Interior, a lack of police, and this lack of police is visible at the level of the PSP and the municipal police, which is why personnel are necessary for us,” emphasized Carlos Coins.
Along with strengthening the personnel, Rui Moreira said it is necessary to expand the service commission of PSP agents who transfer to the municipal police and which determines three years of service with the possibility of extension three times, that is, a maximum tenure of nine years, later. I’m going back to PSP.
“We understand that this service fee will be extended until these agents are replaced with new ones,” he said, also expressing concerns about the tools needed to ensure the costs of these agents are borne by municipalities.
Carlos Moedas also stressed the need to expand the skills of municipal police officers at the community level and in the traffic zone, while advocating, however, the need to train officers in a police school.