Last week the Security Coordination Bureau (GCS) indicated that overall and violent crime in 2016 has decreased by 6.5 percent and 10.5 percent respectively. With the exception of 2015, where overall crime increased by 1.3%, this continues with the downward trend starting in 2008.

These provisional figures reflect reported crime up until the third quarter of 2016 and published in a report analysing crime in Portugal..

According to the report, which was covered in depth by newspaper Diário de Notícias (DN), common crimes that such as street robberies and car thefts have decreased. This, the police chiefs said, could in large part be due to a greater police presence on the streets, heavier armed and better equipped forces, police reinforcements in critical areas, and a greater crime prevention awareness by people.

DN reports that with prisons currently being overloaded with more violent criminals, police are now facing new trends in crime, which no longer take place on streets, but rather online. This is evidenced by extortion, mostly committed over the internet, and IT scams grew significantly, by 70 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Extortion, particularly sexual bribery, or sextortion, as it has become known, and IT crimes such as illegally accessing bank details, sabotage and swindling, have both risen markedly, as have cases of blackmail.

“Internet crime requires lots of specific research due to its trans-nationality and the great difficulty of collecting evidence”, stressed the head of the PJ police’s cybercrime department, which was created in 2012 to tackle the growing crimes.

Other articles and events

• COVID-19 GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE INSPECTIONS BY GNR, PSP AND ACT IN MUNICIPALITIES WITH HIGHEST INCIDENCE
• PRIME MINISTERS ADDRESS TO THE NATION CONCERNING EASING OF MEASURES
• VICE-ADMIRAL GOUVEIA E MELO, CORDINATOR OF THE VACCINATION PLAN AGAINST COVID-INTERVIEW WITH RADIO RENASCENÇA AND PÚBLICO
• Meeting at Infarmed concerning evolution of Covid-19 -Live updates
• Protecting trees is creating more fire-resistant forests
• Covid-19: Rapid test results must be reported to health authorities
• Covid-19: Easter celebrations at the Sanctuary of Fatima broadcast ‘online’
• PSP and GNR detained 911 people during a year of pandemic
• Effective journalism to combat the pandemic
• NEAMWAVE’21 – Exercise to test the alert and degree of readiness in reaction to a tsunami
• Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa – Swearing in and ceremony
• Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa takes office for a second term as President of the Republic,
• Proposal for deconfinement measures arising from Infarmed meeting
• Meeting at Infarmed
• MAI sets minimum numbers of women in security forces