The president of the Union of Criminal Investigation Officials of the Judiciary Police (ASFIC) (PJ) on Friday 13th April, called for the admission of at least 240 inspectors by 2020, to fill the gaps and rejuvenate a picture with a “very high” average age.
Speaking to Lusa in Braga, on the side lines of the 5th Congress of Criminal Investigation, Ricardo Valadas said that the 120 inspectors who are going to enter in 2019 for the PJ are “manifestly insufficient” for what the police lost in terms of the cadre “in the last eight or nine years.”
“We needed to open another competition immediately, so that at least 120 other inspectors will enter by 2020,” he said.
According to Ricardo Valadas, “the financial restrictions of recent years have been suffocating the work of the PJ and the dynamics necessary” to maintain the security of the country.
The result, he added, is a cadre of inspectors with a “very high average age, around 48 years old.”
“There is a lot of experience, but it has to be passed on to the younger generations, and this work has to be done in a timely manner,” he emphasized.
Likewise, he said that there are facilities of the PJ “in urgent need of reforms”, due to lack of space, lack of working conditions and structural problems.
“There are departments where it is impossible to work with the minimum acceptable conditions for professionals of the PJ,” he said, pointing out as an example the facilities of Braga, but also alluding as “very problematic cases”, Ponta Delgada, Setúbal and Faro.
He admitted that there is “will” and “sensitivity” of the Ministry of Justice to solve the problems of human and material resources, but “economic constraints” have prevented the solutions from advancing.
“The Ministry of Finance cannot restrict the security of the citizen, you cannot question certain types of values and security is the main value to live in freedom. You cannot cut where there must be daily investment,” he said.
Organized by the Trade Union of Criminal Investigation Officials of the PJ, the 5th Congress of Criminal Investigation has as its theme Terrorism.
Not wishing to refer to the phenomenon, particularly the threat levels in Portugal, Ricardo Valadas preferred to underline that the PJ is the “only organization” that investigates terrorism in the country and, therefore, needs to be strengthened.
“We do not like to focus on levels of threat because we do not want to cause alarm. We work every day to ensure the safety of citizens so that they feel safe without being embarrassed by security devices,” he said.
He recalled that terrorism “is not fought in the media, but in secrecy, discretion, identification of phenomena and international cooperation.”
“It is this work that is done and sometimes not understood,” he said
- State of Emergency Monitoring Structure Meeting and Security Forces Enforcement Report
- 1969 earthquake. The sea bubbled and the country took to the streets in pyjamas
- Covid-19 Portugal will buy about 38 million vaccines
- Mobil Internet Performance is worse in rural areas study shows
- Prime Minister speaks to the country after Council of Ministers Meeting
- Celebrations planned in 2022 to mark the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first train in Lagos
- United Kingdom and Italy with more impact at the beginning of the pandemic in Portugal
- Official Speech of the President of the Republic
- Infarmed meeting 22nd February 2021
- Covid-19: Project “Neighbours at the window” awarded the Civil Solidarity award
- The dark side of Valentine’s Day. More than 2,000 complaints of dating violence in 2020
- INFARMED meeting Lisbon 9th February 2021
- Aid requests to APAV’s Safe Internet Line increased 575.49% in 2020
- Pedro Simas says that Portugal may be one of the best in the world to control the third wave
- “I want to give a positive signal, we will have summer”
