Municipal Police officers would no longer be recruited into the PSP; Minister defends specific recruitment for these police forces.
The Minister of Internal Administration admitted this Tuesday that agents from the Municipal Police of Lisbon and Porto will no longer be recruited into the PSP, defending a specific recruitment for these police forces.
“We, the Government, I, Minister of Internal Affairs, think maturely that in the future the exclusive purpose of giving PSP resources to the Municipal Police of Lisbon and Porto has an end”, these Luis Neves, in the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees in response to PCP deputy Paula Santos.
As Lisbon and Porto Municipal Police have special regime in which, unlike the other municipal police forces in the country, they are constituted exclusively by personnel with police functions of the Public Security Police.
The minister confirmed to the communist deputy that “there is in fact a request for 100 elements to go to the Lisbon Municipal Police and 80 to Porto”.
Luís Neves said that he has already conveyed to the mayors of Lisbon and Porto that he is being pondered the end of that special regime for the Municipal Police.
“If you were president of one of these chambers, I would be the one to recruit myself with their own career, having the capacity for discipline and that is why I want to say very calmly that I have already spoken to both of them about this and so perhaps in the very near future they will create and recruit their own structures”, he said.
More police on the street
In general, the Minister of Internal Administration told deputies that he will put more police on the streets: “The police are supposed to be on the street and to fulfill its mission.”
One of the priorities is to have “more police where they are needed”since administrative tasks “can be performed by others”.
900 police of PSP will enter pre-reform still in 2026 – but, also this year, they will enter more than 1000 agents.
Luís Neves revealed that he has already asked for a survey of the number of PSP agents who are in these roles administrative – to be replaced “in the medium term” by employees who are not agents.
Expulsions
On the day of the release of Amnesty International’s annual report, which addresses police violence in Portugal and prosecutions for alleged illegal homicides, the minister was clear.
Since taking office, he has signed “countless dispatches” of expulsion of members of the PSP and GNR. Luís Neves will be “very firm” and “inflexible” in these cases.
