Year: 2016

The same source said that Jose Manuel Moura, who took office as commander of the National Command of Relief Operations (CNOS) in December 2012, was informed of this decision on Tuesday.

The proposal to replace José Manuel Moura by Rui Esteves was made by the new president of the National Authority of Civil Protection, Joaquim Leitão, and accepted by the Ministry of Internal Administration, the same source said.

All district Relief Operations commanders were on duty when the current Government took office, which decided not to renew these commissions and leave the decision to the end of this year.

The same source also stressed that the replacement of José Manuel Moura is not related to the fire season this summer.

The President of the President of the Directing Council of the Regional Civil Protection Service Madeira announced on 28th December that he will be leaving his office in January after a period of over 10 years.

Last week the Security Coordination Bureau (GCS) indicated that overall and violent crime in 2016 has decreased by 6.5 percent and 10.5 percent respectively. With the exception of 2015, where overall crime increased by 1.3%, this continues with the downward trend starting in 2008.

These provisional figures reflect reported crime up until the third quarter of 2016 and published in a report analysing crime in Portugal..

According to the report, which was covered in depth by newspaper Diário de Notícias (DN), common crimes that such as street robberies and car thefts have decreased. This, the police chiefs said, could in large part be due to a greater police presence on the streets, heavier armed and better equipped forces, police reinforcements in critical areas, and a greater crime prevention awareness by people.

DN reports that with prisons currently being overloaded with more violent criminals, police are now facing new trends in crime, which no longer take place on streets, but rather online. This is evidenced by extortion, mostly committed over the internet, and IT scams grew significantly, by 70 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Extortion, particularly sexual bribery, or sextortion, as it has become known, and IT crimes such as illegally accessing bank details, sabotage and swindling, have both risen markedly, as have cases of blackmail.

“Internet crime requires lots of specific research due to its trans-nationality and the great difficulty of collecting evidence”, stressed the head of the PJ police’s cybercrime department, which was created in 2012 to tackle the growing crimes.

The provision of first aid will be part of the contents taught in the classes to take the driving tests in order to obtain a driving licence. This is one of the 106 measures included in the new National Road Safety Strategic Plan (PENSE2020), which is in public consultation until next January 8. However, in the analysis of the document, several associations in the sector criticize the fact that the plan does not determine any date for the implementation of the initiatives, nor does it indicate which financial resources will be allocated to its implementation.

Another measure is to encourage the placing on cars that are already part of the fleet of the new system  eCall , a device that automatically sends an alert to the emergency services in case of road accident, with the information of the location coordinates where is the car. From April 2018 all new cars sold in the European Union will be required to have eCall , which will run through 112. The aim is to enable quicker assistance to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries.

The PENSE2020 also proposes to study the introduction of driving inhibitors devices, also known as alcohol locks , which require the driver to measure the alcohol level in the blood before starting the vehicle. If the result is greater than that allowed by law (in Portugal a rate equal to or greater than 0.5 g / l), the mechanism blocks the car, preventing the driver from starting the journey. Such instruments have already been implemented in some countries, such as Sweden, in reinsertion programs for drivers driven to drive with alcohol and in certain types of transport.

Military personnel from the Madeira Nature and Environment Protection Service captured a dog on December 20 for having bitten two people in the Rochinha area of ​​Funchal.

The dog, captured with the collaboration of the veterinary services of the Municipality of Funchal, was in the backyard of a residence, quite aggressive and had bitten two people who needed to receive hospital treatment.

The animal was delivered to the Municipal Kennel of Funchal.

The GNR registered between 24^th – 26 th December, during the  “Natal Tranquilo”,traffic operation  587 accidents and one fatal, representing more accidents than last year but less deaths, according to provisional data.

This year, and in the area of ​​action of the GNR, also registered six seriously injured and 243 slight injuries, according to information available on the website of the National Republican Guard (GNR).

Last year, in the same three days, the GNR had registered 460 road accidents, seven dead, 15 seriously injured and 136 slightly injured.

This year there were 127 more accidents than last year, six fewer dead, nine seriously injured and 107 slight injuries.

The accident with the deadly victim occurred on Saturday in the Porto district, while the day with more accidents (283) happened on Friday.

The GNR intensified, between Friday and Monday, highway inspections with patrols in all the national territory for the routes with greater traffic at this time of the year.

The aim of the operation was to prevent road accidents, to ensure traffic flow and to support all road users in order to provide them with a safe journey.

The Judiciary Police (PJ) detained two public servants in the service of the Regional Fund for Cohesion and Economic Development (FRCDE), because they were “heavily accused” of improperly appropriating € 400,000 from that public body under the government’s authority Regional of the Azores.

The two women, aged 55 and 56, linked to the Administrative and Financial Section of the FRCDE, are suspected of the continued practice of the crime of embezzlement in the last seven years.”Those detained, taking advantage of their professional functions and through undue treasury operations, with the use of incorrect bank transfers, in an articulated manner, have succeeded in ibtiaining for their their benefit, a value of nearly four hundred Thousand euros, “said the statement sent to the offices by the Department of Criminal Investigation of Ponta Delgada

GNR Guarda have delivered about 400 pieces of clothing and footwear to four social institutions in the region that support children and young people, the elderly and disadvantaged households.

According to Lieutenant Daniel Fernandes, commander of the Intervention Detachment of the Territorial Command of the GNR of Guarda, the institutions received articles that were seized in recent months for counterfeiting in road inspection actions and in fairgrounds held in various places in the district.

The GNR official explained to the Lusa agency that the pieces distributed today, by court decision, were destined to be delivered to social institutions, “without reference to the brands”, which were previously withdrawn.

“Those pieces that do not give to remove the labels or marks are destroyed,” he said.

The GNR of Guarda, taking advantage of the holiday season, delivered, for the fourth consecutive year, about 400 articles of clothing (pants, sweaters, etc.) and footwear to four institutions in the municipalities of Guarda, Seia, Pinhel and Almeida, Thousands of euros. “

Each institution received about 100 pieces at a time of the year considered “the most appropriate” by GNR, according to Daniel Fernandes.

The GNR announced on 23rd December the arrest of three young people for drug trafficking in Viseu and the seizure of more than a thousand doses of cocaine in an investigation that lasted about six months.

In a statement, the GNR de Viseu reports that the arrest of the three men, aged between 25 and 29 years, was carried out by military personnel from the Criminal Investigation Center of Viseu, in collaboration with the Criminal Investigation Center of Santa Comba Dão.

“As part of the investigation, which took place about six months ago, two home searches and two non-domiciliary searches were carried out in Viseu and Oporto,” he adds.

According to the GNR, 1177 doses of cocaine, a shotgun, a vehicle, ten mobile phones, five caliber cartridges, four LCDs, three computers, a gold ring, a precision scale, various equipment and sound instruments were seized, Various pairs of tennis and snippets for narcotic packaging.

Two of the suspects were subject to pre-trial detention, while the other was subjected to weekly presentations at the GNR station in their area of ​​residence.

Diario de Notices (DN) has reported on 24^th December that the Judicial Police investigates more than one case a day of corruption. Condemnations are only 0.04% of the total registered at first instance

Trial court judges last year condemned 25 defendants for the crime of corruption. The number of investigations carried out by the Judiciary Police (PJ) shows more significantly: 473 investigations (an average of one per day) last year against 345 in 2014. The data are from the Directorate General for Justice Policy (DGPJ) which reveals Statistics between 2007 and 2015 From 2007 to last year the number of convictions for this crime has reduced to less than half (from 52 to 25). The number of defendants nine years ago was, however, much more significant (102) than in the previous year (45).

As of September last year, the Public Prosecutor (MP) – responsible for the charges – completed 536 investigations that ended in prosecution, that is, that there was sufficient evidence to bring to trial. In the same period of this year (September 2016) 617 counts were deducted. Still, based on these data, it is not possible to make a direct comparison because the cases investigated, accused and that resulted in conviction in that period, are not necessarily the same.

Contacted by the DN, the national director of the Judiciary Police (PJ) Almeida Rodrigues admits that, this year and until the beginning of the month, 119 suspects have already been arrested for corruption. “What makes an average detainee every three days.”

Justice Minister Francisca Van Dunem, prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, gave her former colleagues a word of confidence in the fight against corruption, recalling that Portugal ranks 28th in 167 countries in the Ranking of the perception of corruption, prepared by Transparency International.