Any drivers fined on the roads in Portugal last year will have been among the ‘unlucky few’. According to reports, “unsatisfied” police have been “boycotting” the practice of handing out traffic fines, to the extent that income for the State has fallen by 55%.
In numbers, the PSP and GNR, “along with municipal and concessionary entitie”s, issued 5.4 million fines LESS than were issued in 2016.
This data comes from road safety authority ANSR, with no further explanation.
Jornal de Notícias however went to the source – or sources – to hear that the shortfall is a way police agents have opted to show their “discontent” to the government that continues, from their point of view, to fail them.
Main issues centre on pay and conditions, confirmed union bosses Paulo Rodrigues, of the association of professional police syndicates, and César Nogueira, representing the association of GNR professionals.
Said the paper, the two men accepted it was “a form of fines’ boycott” which sees police agents ‘advising drivers before they park in a prohibited place, for example, instead of waiting until they park and then fining them afterwards’.
Many would argue that the latter form of policing could be seen as abusive, but syndicates here are seeing their advisory capacity as a form of protest.
As to the kind of financial pain this has caused State coffers, JN suggests fines income was down last year by €2.5 million.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
