Police in Portugal | Safe Communities Portugal (2024)

The GNR created in 1911, is a paramilitary security force organised into a Special Corps of Troops. In peacetime, it is dependent upon the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the purposes of recruitment, administration and performance of duties arising from its general mission, and on the National Ministry of Defence, for the purposes of standardisation and regulation of the military doctrine, arms and equipment. The GNR’s missions are: to guarantee, within the scope of its responsibility, the maintenance of public order, within its area of jurisdiction exercised mainly through the policing of all areas in the country except for the larger cities which come under the jurisdiction of the PSP.

The PSP was formed in 1867. Its overall responsibilities are ensuring democratic legality, safeguarding internal security and the rights of its citizens in accordance with the constitution and laws of Portugal. The PSP is commanded by a National Director responsible to the Minister of Internal Affairs. Its duties, defined in law, are diverse and include protection of key points, diplomatic protection, security of major events, traffic policing, private security and firearms licensing, crime prevention, investigation of crime, airport security and protection of persons and property within its areas of remit. It is responsible for the policing of all the airports as well as the larger cities.

The Judicial Police was created on 20 October 1945, and is dedicated to the prevention and investigation of serious crime throughout the country. It is integrated into the justice system and has been designed and shaped over decades to serve justice. Managed by judicial magistrates and prosecutors and officials with legal training, the Judicial Police deals with increasingly complex criminality in areas such as: drug trafficking, cybercrime, terrorism, money laundering corruption and crimes involving firearms. It has a number of specialist crime support and investigative units including those responsible for forensic examinations and international cooperation with INTERPOL and EUROPOL.

SEF is a security service within the Ministry of Internal Affairs that is responsible for carrying out checks on persons at the borders, monitoring aliens inside national territory, preventing and fighting organized crime involving illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings, decide upon asylum applications, issuing passports and identification documents to foreign nationals, in order to safeguard internal security and individual rights and freedoms within the global context of the migratory phenomenon. SEF is also responsible for promoting, coordinating and implementing the measures and actions related to these activities and to migratory movements.

The Maritime Police, as the specialty police within the scope of the AMN, and within the framework of matters of the Maritime Authority System (SAM), is a police and criminal police body that guarantees, and inspects, compliance with the laws and regulations in the spaces members of the Public Maritime Domain (DPM), in port areas and in bathing spaces, as well as in all inland waters under the jurisdiction of AMN and other maritime spaces under national sovereignty and jurisdiction, and must preserve the regularity of maritime activities.
It is also responsible, under the law, and in collaboration with the other police and security forces, to guarantee the security and rights of citizens.