New national director of the PSP wants to improve the financial conditions of police officers | Ministry of Internal Affairs

The new national director of the PSP, Luís Carrilho, committed this Friday, during his inauguration at the Ministry of Internal Administration, to fight for the socio-professional and financial development of police officers. The PSP’s top official also promised to provide his men and women with the equipment necessary to carry out their duties.

“I commit to prioritizing the well-being of all police officers. This means not only working, within my sphere of competence, for better socio-professional and financial conditions, but also ensuring adequate equipment and training for quality. And, at the same time, promote the creation of a work environment where each member of the PSP feels valued, respected and supported”, he declared, also highlighting the importance of the role of personnel with non-police functions.

From an operational point of view, Luís Carrilho referred to the reinforcement of proximity policing, an aspect also mentioned by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, during his speech at the ceremony.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister did not shy away from the issue of salary increases for security forces, having also defended not only their valorization but also the end of the “indignified” conditions in which many work. However, he also warned that it is necessary to take into account the financial constraints that the country is going through: “There are hundreds of thousands of public service providers, in various areas, who find themselves in the same circumstances. Any change causes a very substantial change in our accounts and in our budget management”.

For Luís Montenegro, “it is not worth feeding public opinion with unrealistic scenarios, because when we tell society that we can have something that we are not going to have, this leads to a relationship of distrust. We will, in the next moment, frustrate society” . Even so, he acknowledged, in order to recruit more police officers and also to prevent those who are already there from leaving, it is necessary to make the career more attractive: “We have to value it, in a difficult context where unfortunately we have this problem in a transversal throughout public administration”.

Warnings aside, the Prime Minister hopes that the Government can, in the short term, give “a good follow-up to the negotiations started” with the security forces unions. And he praised the “committed” way in which the Minister of Internal Administration, Margarida Blasco, has led the process. Addressing the holder of the portfolio, in what can also be interpreted as a message to the previous national director of the PSP, Barros Correia, who was dismissed by the executive, Montenegro stated that “this is not the time for interviews”, but, in this case from the minister, to “do her homework”.

Barros Correia’s dismissal took place just a few days after this official had once again sided with the class and its demands. Asked about the protests by the security forces following the increases attributed to the Judiciary Police during an interview with News Diaryreplied: “A reaction from elements of the PSP was to be expected. The imbalance that exists between the PSP and some other security forces and services is great and has gotten worse. This brings greater discomfort within the PSP.”

In his inauguration speech, Luís Carrilho made a point of praising the performance of his “comrade” and predecessor at the head of this police force, for his “brilliantism and humanism”. Montenegro left a message about the behavior of the security forces: “We, in the Government, are the government at all times. And the security agents too, whether they are working on the street, in associational or union roles at the negotiating table.” The message did not go down well with one of the representatives of the union platform who has been in talks with the minister, Armando Ferreira: “At the moment we are not very receptive to messages, because the guardianship only wants to give us an increase of 75 euros per month”, very far from the almost a thousand that Judiciary staff have received since last January as a mission supplement. “It is unacceptable”, noted the leader of the National Police Union.