Chief Superintendent of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the Public Security Police (PSP), Jorge Maurício, warned on 19th November about the cases of assaults on police, revealing that 238 incidents were registered between January and September this year.
“We must not forget that the police are the visible face of state authority,” said Jorge Mauricio, arguing that the institutions, particularly the judiciary, should intervene in the situation of aggression against security forces.
Attending the PSP’s 152 anniversary commemorative ceremony of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command, the Minister of Internal Affairs considered that “aggression against a police officer is an aggression against the democratic rule of law that must be exemplarily repressed”, pointing out that personal integrity and the image of respect for police forces are at stake.
Recalling that Portugal was recently distinguished as the third safest country in the world, Eduardo Cabrita praised the contribution of the “most demanding standards of police action”, with technical and operational capacity to know how, when and how to intervene.
“It is a police for the defence of the rule of democratic law, a police that tolerates neither domestic violence nor racism nor xenophobia, a police force that is an active force for inclusion”, reinforced by the Minister.
In addition to the 238 assaulted police cases recorded in the first nine months of this year, PSP’s chief superintendent of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command made known “the other party”, in which 1,215 police cases have been filed from 2014 to September this year.
Of the total cases brought against police, 876 were filed, which corresponds to 72%, 177 are awaiting decision (14%), 23 were decided with penalty and seven were appealed against, according to data from the PSP Metropolitan Command of Lisbon.
For crime, operating results, comparing 2018 to 2019, point to a reduction of overall crime by more than 5.5% and a 16% decrease in violent and serious crime.
“Very good numbers for what is, at this moment, the issue of human resources”, considered Jorge Maurício, revealing that there are today 1,255 fewer police than in 2011.
On operational concerns, the Chief Superintendent listed the incidence of crimes against the most vulnerable groups, such as scams against the elderly, of stab wounds, which this year saw a sharp increase, and the sale of pressed laurel (sold as fake drugs), which creates a very strong image of unpleasantness of the city and accounting for around 600 case reports in 2018.
Regarding operational “success”, the head of PSP’s Lisbon Metropolitan Command indicated the issue of pickpockets, where there was “more than 30% reduction in crime in this typology”, and “many preventive arrests”, including in cases of domestic violence.