PSD wants to expand the use of firearms by the police to situations with “weapons of lethal capacity”

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) filed a bill that aims to allow the use of firearms by police when the target carries “weapons with lethal capacity”. However, the diploma does not specify which weapons have lethal capacity.

Current legislation provides that firearms may be used to “capture or prevent the escape of a person” armed with “firearms, bladed weapons or devices or substances that are explosive, radioactive or suitable for the manufacture of toxic or asphyxiating gases”. The use of firearms may also be authorized when there is a situation involving suspicion “of having committed a crime punishable by a prison sentence of more than three years”.

According to the Government party, the objective is to “continue to value security forces and services, whether through investment or by updating the types of weapons that can be used by them”. The measure also aims to “offer greater legal protection to security forces and services and provide greater transparency in interactions with the public”.

With regard to the work of valuing professionals, the diploma mentions “an important investment of six million euros for the acquisition of bodycams for the National Republican Guard and the Public Security Police.” This investment was approved this year.

The use of bodycams is not new: the discussion dates back to 2021, the year in which its use and access to recordings by security forces and services was regulated. The PSD diploma also introduces new features in this field.

It provides that, “when the police activity in which the use of a firearm occurred was captured by a portable camera for individual use, the corresponding rules on the duty of reporting and communication apply”. This duty consists of the legal obligation of agents to communicate to the competent authorities the relevant facts of which they become aware in the exercise of their functions.

The same PSD proposal emphasizes that the use of cameras cannot replace this duty. “The use of portable cameras for individual use can never replace the duty to report the use of a firearm, this duty being mandatory and regardless of the existence of recording.”

amanda.lima@dn.pt