Minister responds to growing complaints by city residents
Police are to be reinforced in Lisbon and Porto due to an unavoidable crescendo of complaints by city residents.
Portugal’s minister for internal affairs pledged yesterday that “policing actions will continue to be reinforced” in both locations.
This has been a long and hard-fought ‘campaign’ by local people whose initial complaints were often swept aside.
But comments made by municipal leaders – and a well-publicised public meeting in Lisbon – have rung the necessary changes.
Admittedly, Ms Blasco has couched the reinforcement as “part of the Safe Summer 2024 programme” (which began on June 15) – but it looks like being more than that.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the handover of equipment and vehicles for the GNR, as well as equipment for police officers assigned to the Paris Olympics, Ms Blasco said: “More elements will be deployed to add to the operatives who are already assigned” in both Porto and Lisbon, and “there will be policing actions on foot”, which is the “aspect in which people feel safest”, she said.
Ms Blasco explained that security forces will “use graduates” from the “last three or four courses” to beef numbers.
“There are 800 people to be distributed throughout Portugal and its most critical points,” she said.
The minister also said that the government has been in contact with “mayors and local authorities and associations”, to find out what they feel is needed for their areas.
Santa Maria Maior is “another parish with problems”
Asked if there were plans to increase policing in the parish of Santa Maria Maior in Lisbon (where residents held a high-profile public meeting recently, with their concerns echoed by Lisbon’s mayor Carlos Moedas), Ms Blasco said that it is “another parish” with security problems, adding that a “survey of the most critical situations” has been carried out to identify areas where policing needs to be increased the most.
Earlier this week, Lisbon mayor Carlos Moedas, repeated his call for more police in the city, saying that there has been “a clear increase” in crime – something borne out in recent internal security reports.
Lisbon is not only struggling with increased crime. The scenario is that violent crime is very much on the increase, along with a marked rise in the number of homeless people/ rough sleepers which add to residents’ sense of unease.
Source material: LUSA
