It’s true: 30 years ago, on February 26, 1996, the first inspector general of Internal Administration, António Rodrigues Maximiano (1946-2008), took office.
I was then turning a page. Let us not forget that a few weeks earlier, legislation had been published allowing, for the first time in seventy years, a civilian to be at the head of a security force. And three months after the start of the first Guterres government, what the sector had never known became a reality: a body dedicated to external control of police activity.
Just like the arrival of this control, the choice of the Deputy Attorney General was not welcomed by everyone at the time. But today it is difficult to dispute that his actions, his qualities and his own personal brand proved to be of great value, right from the installation phase, for the rooting, projection and results achieved by IGAI – at the head of which he would remain for almost a decade, becoming a well-known figure among the Portuguese.
The memory of Maximiano’s initial work, and the qualified team he surrounded himself with, brings associated eloquent aspects of the heritage that was presented at that time: I remember some.
At that time, under the responsibility of the security forces, there were six dozen spaces, not inventoried, where detainees were taken, many of them not only without minimum requirements but, above all, without any conditions that would allow monitoring compliance with the legal deadlines for presentation to a judge. They were all visited, some improved, many closed – and a system was introduced, on a proposal from IGAI, that guaranteed immediate communication to the judicial authority of any entry into this circuit. We were there before the arrival of the internet – it was the famous mandatory “fax”.
Another persistent burden was the serious deficiencies in the exercise of disciplinary power. In a survey carried out by IGAI, it was found that incidents between subordinates and superiors tended to generate more disciplinary consequences than complaints filed by citizens. In half a thousand cases analyzed, I remember that preventive suspensions were counted on one hand, even including cases that had given rise to criminal proceedings. In the short term, IGAI’s contribution to a more balanced standard would be significant.
But the biggest deficit identified at the time was perhaps in training – and this often had critical effects on the observance of rights, freedoms and guarantees. In this new priority, and in the chapters for which it was dedicated, IGAI assumed a fundamental participation, starting from the distance learning programs, prepared since the beginning of 1997, thus opening a path that would be deepened.
One of the IGAI team members from the early years mentioned, not long ago, with humanly understandable nostalgia, the loss of institutional leadership. This will perhaps not be the angle that warrants highlighting. But restoring the ability to respond in a socially useful time – especially in cases of greater relevance and projection – and expanding IGAI’s contribution to the qualification of police activity would constitute a good way to honor and continue Maximiano’s essential work.
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