The Justice Minister, Francisca Van Dunem, said that the Judiciary Police should play a central role in the discussion on the prevention of fire crimes.

During the 72-year anniversary ceremony of the Judiciary Police in Lisbon, the Minister highlighted the “deep knowledge of the territorial network and economic interests associated with the fire activity” that the police have, and added that it has “a unique work of composition of the socio-economic profile of the arsonist ‘.

Francisca Van Dunem said that the Judiciary Police can put this knowledge at the service of prevention and take a central role in the necessary debates about the future.

The Minister also said that Portugal has “a herculean task of reconstruction and creation of patterns of behaviour and action that crystallize any repeat of this  tragedy.”

The Judicial Police has the competence to “thoroughly investigate the causes of the fires, whenever there are suspicions of criminal origin, clarifying them without doubts and thus contributing to the public peace, which is carried out by the individualization of those responsible or the removal of suspicion of crime ‘.

The Minister of Justice also highlighted the regulation and installation of the National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and the configuration of the Single Point of Contact for international police cooperation, which ensured that “a decisive step was taken by Portugal in the framework of the common European strategy for combating cybercrime. serious and organized crime, with a particular focus on terrorism ‘.

Francisca Van Dunem added that the Judiciary Police is being targeted for technology, taking into account the “new challenges in prevention and repression that demand even more human resources training, investment in technologies and equipment”.

“It is time to unify an organic complex, functional and statutory fragmented and misfit,” he said.