GNR and PSP started the Operation Summer programs with the certainty that this will be an atypical year. The policing will be reinforced not only for security on the move but above all to ensure that health safety standards are met in the fight against the pandemic.
The PSP started the operation Seguro Seguro on June 1, which usually consists of monitoring homes and roads. This year, the strategy will be different, although vigilance is maintained in residential areas. But the main objective is to combat practices considered dangerous in the face of the pandemic, such as gatherings and parties, and to be prepared for aggressive reactions.
At the end of the school year, agents involved in the Escola Segura program will be relocated to summer activities.
“In all bathing areas that belong to the PSP, a significant reinforcement is planned to accompany the movement of the population and ensure that people are safe. This year, fewer trips are expected and whoever moves will be for a shorter period, but the reinforcement remains and may be more significant than in previous years. There are a series of behaviors that started to be sanctioned, the reinforcement will be gradual and the needs are met “, explains the quartermaster Nuno Carocha, PSP spokesman.
Eduardo Cabrita wants to avoid repeating Odiáxere case
This Friday, in the Algarve, the Minister of Internal Administration, presented the operation Summer. Insurance from GNR, announcing a reinforcement of 2,650 military personnel to the south of the country. But one of the objectives is to prevent the spread of SARS-Cov-2, with Eduardo Cabrita underlining that they want to prevent gatherings “and avoiding irresponsibility phenomena such as the case that we want to be isolated and unrepeatable from Odiáxere”. This party in Lagos has already led to the infection of more than 100 people with the new coronavirus.
Hours later, the Faro Territorial Command announced that, on Friday night, intervened to end two illegal parties in Lagos and Albufeira. The same happened in Leads. And in Loures, three PSP agents were beaten when they dispersed a group of people.
“GNR maintains an active surveillance throughout its area of responsibility, focused on mandatory confinements, public transport, restaurants, access to beaches and all areas most likely to have gatherings “, informed the structure’s spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Hélder Barros.
One of the problems that the authorities have encountered is the resistance to their intervention, as it happened again last Friday night, when the PSP dispersed a group of people next to a café in Prior Velho, one of the parishes in the municipality of Loures which maintains the state of calamity, resulting in aggression to agents.
Nuno Carocha denies that there are areas in advance that are difficult to intervene in monitoring compliance with health rules. It stresses that the agents will give “the appropriate response and in accordance with the legal mechanisms”, namely by activating the judicial means, that is, filing a complaint with the Public Ministry.
“There are areas where historically there have been more reported incidents, but it is also unreasonable to say that in all neighborhoods on the periphery of large centers, in areas considered problematic, there is greater resistance to compliance with the measures, they are episodic phenomena”, says Nuno Carocha.
The strategy of approaching that police is developed in three aspects: “Containment of incidents such as the gathering of people and the PSP has internal protocols in order to reinforce the personnel moving to these actions; involvement of the local community in order to understand what type of accident it is and its origin, what is done by the local police, and communication to the judicial authorities “.
GNR has the same behavior, with Lieutenant Colonel Hélder Barros highlighting the role of the population in reporting illicit situations. “The GNR military has guidelines for being pragmatic in law enforcement because the spread of the virus is at stake.”
Fines between 100 and 500 euros from 00:00
Since 00:00 this Saturday, non-compliance with safety rules, such as the lack of a mask in closed places, is punished with fines between 100 and 500 euros for natural persons: increasing to 1,000 to 5,000 euros for legal persons (establishments).
There can be no gatherings with more than 20 people in the country, more than 10 in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and more than 5 in the 19 parishes with more new cases of new contagions from covid-19.
It is forbidden to sell alcoholic beverages outside the establishments and they cannot be consumed on public roads.
The Government justifies the new measures by the fact that most of the new contagions are associated with non-compliance with the rules of physical distance resulting from the situations of Alert, Contingency and Calamity declared under the Basic Law of Civil Protection.
It is up to the GNR, the PSP, the Maritime Police, the National Authority for Food and Economic Security and the Municipal Police to monitor compliance with the rules.
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