Leiria District

History

The Leiria District Command of the Public Security Police completed in 2020, 146 years since the arrival of the first civil police in the city of Leiria and the creation of the Leiria Civil Police Station on June 17, 1874.

The proposal for its creation, presented by the Civil Governor and approved on that day by the General Board of the District, was praised in the following terms:

His Majesty El-Rei having seen the offices of 4 of the current month, in which the civil governor of Leiria reports that he has carried out the creation of a civil police corps (…) in order to guarantee individual security and property, and also participates that the general board of the district unanimously voted the amount necessary to incur the expenses of this very useful institution, and that the respective municipal council had offered a free house in the town hall to accommodate the police force ( …): Send orders to praise the civil governor for taking the initiative in such a useful way, and for showing his zeal and interest in the public service (…) ”Paço, on 10 July 1874. ”  In  Diário do Governo n 164, of July 27, 1874. ”

The Leiria Civil Police Station had its own Regulation that gave it the powers of administrative police, judicial police and correctional police arising from the Letter of Law of King D. Luís, of July 2, 1867.

It is known that the effective activity started shortly after its creation, being possible to find the record of the first fine passed on August 13, 1874.

José Maria Monteiro Mora was appointed the first police commissioner in Leiria, having signed his oath of office on July 19, 1876 in the Civil Government.

Four years after its creation, the need to integrate new guards became evident, so that on January 21, 1878 it was announced that the Civil Police Corps of Leiria would integrate new reinforcements that would meet various requirements from among which, the robustness and good appearance and the ability to read and write. These recruitment criteria were the same as those used in other districts.

In 1928, a year after the formal creation of the Public Security Police, which started to integrate the existing Civil Police bodies under a national structure, the PSP started to be present at the headquarters of the municipality of Caldas da Rainha, followed by the municipality of Peniche in 1932, municipality of Alcobaça in 1950, municipality of Marinha Grande in 1951, municipality of Nazaré in 1956 and municipality of Pombal in 1985.

In 1967 the police stations of Monte Real, S. Pedro were created of Moel and S. Martinho do Porto and in 1979 the Vieira de Leiria post was created (places where this Police is no longer present). In 2008, the Marrazes Police Station was created in the municipality of Leiria, the most recent sub-unit of the Leiria District Command.

Sources: “A history of the PSP in Leiria”, Superintendent Flávio dos Santos Alves, “Lectures, theories and the dynamics of police training in Lisbon, 1867-1910”, Gonçalo Rocha Gonçalves and “A police for all hours and all moments: the creation of civil police in the liberal transformation of the State / 1862-1868) “, Gonçalo Rocha Gonçalves.

2020 Anniversary

Taking into account the current covid-19 pandemic, making common celebrations impossible, through a note on social networks, the PSP Leiria District Command salutes “all professionals, police and personnel without police functions, who serve and served in this Command District in the cities of Alcobaça, Caldas da Rainha, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Peniche, Pombal and Vila da Nazaré, and in the others where PSP has been present, over the last 146 years ”.

Also remembered are the professionals who have already retired, the active ones and all the Entities and Authorities that collaborated with the PSP’s work.

“In 2019, general crime (CG) reported to PSP in the district of Leiria, in the cities of Alcobaça, Caldas da Rainha, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Peniche Pombal and Vila da Nazaré, decreased by 4.1% compared to 2018 and crime violent or serious (CVG) registered an even more pronounced decrease, of 20.8% ”, adds the note.

Numbers, which for the District Command of Leiria of the Public Security Police, “motivate us to continue, with dedication and enthusiasm, to carry out daily the missions entrusted to us in the service of the public cause and to work for freedom, security and citizens’ rights ”.

In 2019, David Thomas President of Safe Communities Portugal (SCP) and Colin Scarisbrick Silver Coast SCP Representative, visited the Command of Leiria District Headquarters to discuss with them various matters concerning crime prevention and engaging with the foreign community and tourists.