The PSP will provide the police with protective material and less lethal weapons, such as pepper spray and 'tasers', due to the "increase in the intensity of violence used to commit crimes", namely using bladed weapons and fire.
This week, the national director of the Public Security Police, Manuel Magina da Silva, sent an internal communication to all police personnel, to which Lusa had access, on the security and self-protection procedures that police officers must have to defend themselves due to the increase in violence.
In the internal communication, Magina da Silva mentions that, with the objective of “mitigating the risks of the police officers who carry out their mission on a daily basis”, the PSP will continue “the acquisition processes of protection material and less lethal weaponry as quickly as possible”.
In this sense, the national director of that police reports that the distribution of 4.600 new aerosols (pepper spray) for defense has already begun.
According to the PSP, this pepper spray has different characteristics from those that have been distributed so far, since it can be “used in all environments, closed and open, selectively (without side effects other than those caused in the target) and at a greater distance from the suspects, which will increase the security of the police”.
The national director indicates that the distribution of 295 batteries and 1201 real charges for weapons or electrical immobilizing or stunning devices, called 'tasers', has also been started.
Magina da Silva also mentions that starting next year, the training of new police officers will be restructured and intensified in the areas of physical training and police intervention techniques and self-protection measures in order “to prevent aggression against police officers and to mitigate the risks of occurrence of physical injuries to third parties”.
Magina da Silva recalls the internal communication on safety and self-protection procedures sent to all police officers in July 2020, considering that this information remains current because “we are witnessing an increase in the intensity of violence used to commit serious and violent crimes, namely with the use of bladed and firearm weapons”.
Both in 2020 and in the communication sent now, the national director of the PSP lists the gradual order by which police officers can resort to “weapons and means of low lethal potential” and “the security and self-protection procedures that they must comply with to guarantee the integrity physical".
The president of the National Police Union (Sinapol), Armando Ferreira, told Lusa that all tools to defend and protect police officers are welcome, recalling that the union had already warned of the lack of pepper spray among agents, namely those who left training since 2021.
Armando Ferreira regretted that attacks on police officers are increasing and considered that the Penal Code should have an article that contemplates such aggressions as a crime.
For its part, the Independent Union of Police Officers (SIAP) reported, through social networks, that “the use of pepper spray and 'tasers' aims, solely and exclusively, to dissuade the aggressor”, stressing that these weapons are “designed to temporarily incapacitate a person without causing permanent harm,” which allows police to react quickly to dangerous situations and helps prevent unnecessary injury to both officers and suspects.
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