New national director wants to turn PSP into a “all-police”

O new national director of PSP, chief superintendent Pedro Moura, today promised to turn the police into an “intelligent organization” and bring it closer to all Portuguese and foreign citizens residing in the country.

In the speech of the inauguration, a ceremony that took place at the Ministry of Internal Administration and was chaired by the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, Pedro Moura advanced with “the five key strategic commitments” that will guide his mandate ahead of the Public Security Police.

“ My first appointment is with the men and women of the PSP. Valuing our professionals means investing in their continuing training, ensuring that they have the intellectual and operational tools to deal with new forms of crime. It also means taking care of your health and well-being”, he said.

Pedro Moura stressed that it cannot be required to protect others if it is not ensured “that they themselves feel protected by the institution” and advanced that it aims to strengthen “social support, review working conditions and promote a culture of leadership based on integrity and merit”.

“PSP should be an attractive career, able to capture and retain the best talents in our society, offering them a perspective of a dignified and motivating future,” he stressed, promising a joint work with the PSP unions.

Another of the commitments “focuss on transforming the PSP into an intelligent organisation” by simplifying processes, eliminating red tape and digitising.

“The third commitment requires us to look at our territorial and functional device. The world has changed, cities have grown and population flows have changed. The PSP should have the agility needed to reorganize its resources where they are most accurate,” he said, ensuring an operational response “fast, effective and adequate to the specificity of each occurrence.”.

The fourth commitment outlined by Pedro Moura is to make the PSP “the police of all”, namely “of the Portuguese who build their lives here and of all foreign citizens who, in increasing numbers, choose Portugal to visit, invest, work or reside”.

“Our ability to safely welcome is one of our biggest strategic assets. PSP will remain the guarantee that anyone, regardless of their origin, will feel safe on our streets. Our proximity will be real, empathetic and inclusive, consolidating a culture of transparency and absolute respect for human rights”, he said.

The fifth commitment “focuss on continuity”, said Pedro Moura, stressing that “the transformation now begun cannot be ephemeral.”.

“ We will establish governance models that ensure that investments and structural changes survive the command cycles. We want to leave roots for sustained growth after-2030”, he said.

The new National Director of PSP outlined a strategy that involves the establishment of “an integrated framework of institutional transformation for the period 2027–2030, establishing priorities, objectives, Transformation Programs and Structural Projects aimed at producing lasting changes in the organization and quality of the public security service”.

Pedro Moura, who had been general coordinator of the Border and Foreign Coordination Unit of the Internal Security System since 2024, took office as National Director of the PSP, replacing Luís Carrilho, who had been in office since May 2024.

In three years, Pedro Moura is the third national director of PSP.