Government approves PGR opinion that contradicts Moedas

On July 8 of this year, Carlos Moedas met with the new Minister of Internal Administration and admitted that Maria Lúcia Amaral agreed with him regarding the change in the functions of the Lisbon Municipal Police. "The minister understands exactly the need for the Municipal Police to be able to make arrests without being a criminal police body," said the Mayor of Lisbon. Despite this, it is now known that the Government approved an opinion from the Consultative Council of the Attorney General's Office that contradicts the PSD mayor's order, reports Diário de Notícias .

Opinion 8/2025 states that municipal police forces are not security forces or criminal police bodies and that, as the agents of this police force are merely administrative, they are prohibited from carrying out criminal investigations and arrests - with the exception of the "detention of suspects of a crime punishable by imprisonment, in the case of flagrant crime", who must be immediately handed over to the judicial authority or police entity.

Carlos Moedas orders the Municipal Police to start making arrests in Lisbon

For the PGR, it is false that “since the Municipal Police of Lisbon and Porto are made up [exclusively] of personnel with police functions from the Public Security Police (…) they would thus maintain the original status and powers of 'criminal police authorities and bodies', due to an 'accumulation of powers', of administrative police and criminal police body”, quotes Diário de Notícias.

They understand, with “absolute clarity”, that the “municipal police force” of Lisbon and Porto “does not form — nor can it form — entities with the powers of criminal police authorities”.

The Attorney General's Office (PGR) takes aim at Carlos Moedas's statements and reiterates the law that defines the Municipal Police's operations, emphasizing that the Municipal Police can already detain, but only in specific cases. "In fact, 'municipal police officers [can only] detain suspects in the case of a public or semi-public crime punishable by imprisonment, in flagrante delicto, and are responsible for preparing the corresponding report of the arrest and for immediately handing the detainee over to the judicial authority or the criminal police agency,'" they continue, quoted by DN.

"The 'municipal police' in these cases — although only in these cases, defined by law — have the authority to 'detain suspects'; but it is true that they do not wait for the arrival of the criminal police body, quite the opposite, they must actively proceed with the 'immediate' handover of the detainee to the judicial authority, or to the competent criminal police body", they state, contradicting Moedas' view.

Although the PGR's opinion has already been approved by the MAI, the document has not yet been published in the Official Gazette, as is mandatory, reports DN.

When questioned by the same newspaper, the General Inspectorate of Internal Administration (IGAI) stated that it had initiated an administrative proceeding to investigate the actions of municipal police officers in reports broadcast by the Now channel, in which officers appear to be detaining street vendors and entering establishments operating as clandestine restaurants as "tourists." The Attorney General's Office did not clarify whether the Public Prosecutor's Office received complaints about these actions.

Before the opinion now released, Carlos Moedas' position had already drawn criticism not only from the opposition, but also doubts from the Mayor of Porto and the former Minister of Internal Administration.

When questioned in Parliament, Margarida Blasco expressed "some legal doubts" about the hypothesis raised by Carlos Moedas. "Municipal police forces, which originate from officers from the PSP, are administrative police forces," she said, before deferring any conclusions to the Attorney General's Office's opinion.

Rui Moreira, however, described this proposal as "nonsense and dangerous" and said that this change in responsibilities risked leading to the "American sheriff model." "The municipal police forces of Lisbon and Porto are made up of PSP officers. But our role is not criminal investigation. We do not advocate that model, and I believe it runs serious risks," Rui Moreira told DN in September 2024.