Unprecedented agreement designed to help with high number of tourists, particularly for World Youth Day
Portugal’s PSP and GNR police forces have signed “an unprecedented protocol” due to the number of tourists expected this summer, especially for World Youth Day.
The agreement basically allows for each force to work in the territory of the other if required.
PSP police operations are generally urban, while the GNR is a rural force. But as this summer is expected to bring “a very significant number of young people from around the world on a scale never seen before in Portugal, for World Youth Day”, the ministry of internal affairs has come up with this plan under its “safe summer” initiative.
The agreement will enter force on Thursday, and carry through until September 15.
World Youth Day is actually only in August, for a short period (1 – 6). But clearly authorities believe there will be a lot of ‘spin-off’ popularity for Portugal as a result.
According to the terms of the agreement, human and material means of any reinforcing police will remain under the operational direction of the territorially competent force.
Meantime, the Safe Summer initiative, which habitually runs only in the Algarve, has been extended to take in Lisbon, Porto and “beaches with greatest touristic pressure due to the increase in tourists” (sic).
