The president of the Association of Police Professionals (ASPP/PSP) accused this Thursday of lying to the Government when he says that there is response capacity to guarantee total population securityclaiming that the problem is structural.
Speaking to journalists during an awareness and protest action in Praia da Rocha, in Portimão, Paulo Santos said that it should not continue “with the paradigm of lying to the populations“, justifying the use of the verb to lie with the fact that the Government is “whitewashing” reality.
“I have to use the term lie because, in reality, what we have seen from the government is a constant lie that everything is fine, that there is responsivenesswhen we know well, who knows the institution, that we are throwing the blanket from one side to another”, he stressed.
A group of PSP professionals was this morning at one of the main entrances to Praia da Rocha beach to distribute brochures to tourists and residents as part of a campaign under the slogan “police ‘low cost‘”, in Portuguese “low cost police“.
The flyers, with texts in Portuguese, English, German and French, present the Portuguese policeman as a “super-policeman”.low cost‘” and that, despite being underpaid and receiving a low-risk subsidy, he strives to keep the country safe.
A couple from Aveiro who received the flyer recognized Lusa that the police profession is poorly paiddespite the risks, but pointed out that this is not the only case in the country, since the same thing happens, for example, with nurses or teachers.
Another tourist, a Swedish national, told Lusa that he thinks Portugal is a safe country and that the police are visible on the streets, but he agreed with the union’s claims that wages are too low.
“It was important that the Government, now in September, give a clear signal to the PSP, to the police, to the unions, to sit down at the table and discuss what is structural, which is how we can change this paradigm and make a strong institution of the PSP with operational response capacity, with the populations”, argued Paulo Santos.
According to the union leader, it is essential to reverse the paradigm of a ‘low cost’ policethat faces “low wages and work overload”, when “what the Government denotes is a constant attempt to try to cover up the reality of the PSP and internal security”.
That official also warned that the PSP is aging because it is not attractive to young people, arguing that the problem is structural and is not going to be solved with “charity policies“, giving place in nurseries, with food vouchers or with accommodation for the police.
According to the president of the ASPP/PSP, the police are “unmotivatedand being increasingly “reinforced” internally “to carry out the mission”, with even some “worrying” signs of crime in the country.
“There are criminal phenomena that are happening that the PSP has not been able to respond to, precisely because of the lack of personnel,” he said, citing as examples a shooting that occurred in July in Vila Real, or the contempt with fans of a soccer club in Guimarães.
However, according to Paulo Santos, Portugal remains a safe country, but “at the cost of effortsense of responsibility and extra work” of the police and not of the measures taken by the Government in terms of security.
Source: Observadora
