Moedas clarifies that Municipal Police arrests continue to depend on the PSP, but they want to end this dependence
The president of Lisbon City Council, Carlos Moedas, clarified this Tuesday that arrests made by the Municipal Police are dependent on the PSP and insisted on the need to clarify the law so that this function can be shared.
“The Municipal Police are on the streets and, if there is a crime, the Municipal Police – who, I repeat, are public security police – have to act. I gave this indication to the commander and I can say that, in Lisbon, every day there is there were these types of arrests, but, obviously, then you have to call the PSP”, said Carlos Moedas, who was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new creative technologies learning center TUMO Lisboa, located in the Beato Innovation Distric.
Asked about the order given to the Municipal Police to start detaining criminal suspects in the city, a decision that the Ministry of Internal Administration said this Tuesday it was analyzing from a technical-legal point of view, Carlos Moedas confirmed that this Guidance was given more than a year ago to the Municipal Police commander.
However, the mayor added, the detention, from a formal point of view, remains dependent on the PSP arriving at the location, a legal requirement that, in Carlos Moedas’ opinion, “creates a wrong perception about the Municipal Police”. Therefore, the Lisbon City Council asked the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) to clarify the law so that the Municipal Police can also carry out arrests without the need for PSP intervention.
“This joint work between the PSP and the Municipal Police is essential. What I ask for is the classification of the law. By clarifying the law, this can be done and the Municipal Police can complement the work of the PSP”, he stated.
On the other hand, the president of Lisbon City Council insisted that Municipal Police officers are trained and recruited by the PSP. “We are talking about Municipal Police who were trained as PSP. Can’t they act in the face of a crime? It’s almost humiliating to have to call a PSP colleague because the law says so. Let’s clarify the law,” she added.
For MAI’s part, Minister Margarida Blasco’s office said that the powers invoked by the Mayor of Lisbon regarding the Municipal Police “are provided for in the applicable law”. “However, given the questions raised by the mayor, this matter is being analyzed from a technical-legal point of view”, said the guardianship.
According to current legislation, the Municipal Police “is a municipal service specially designed to carry out administrative police functions”, which has, above all, supervisory powers.
Despite not being a criminal police body like the Judiciary Police (PJ), the National Republican Guard (GNR) and the Public Security Police (PSP), the Municipal Police have been assigned the responsibility for “detention and immediate delivery, the judicial authority or police entity, of suspects of a crime punishable by a prison sentence, in the case of a flagrant crime, under the terms of the criminal procedural law”, according to the law.
