Portugal’s PSP police force, the Polícia de Segurança Pública, has been told its fuel allowance this year has been halved as part of the 2016 State Budget.
This is the equivalent of just €495 per police car for the year and drew understandable complaint from those in charge of running this branch of Portugal’s various forces of law and order.
Maybe the fuel cut back will not matter too much as a report released today shows that a quarter of the PSP’s emergency response and patrol vehicles are not driveable and hence are off the road.
This situation is not due only to a lack of maintenance as the average mileage of the fleet of ageing vehicles is 175,000 kilometres with an average age of 13 years, well beyond the normal period for hassle free motoring and well into the period of expensive repairs during which the car manufacturers make their money in selling spares.
These problems are small beer when compared to the vehicles the State deems suitable for the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) whose union president César Nogueira was quoted in Correio de Manhã today saying the fleet of ageing hulks his offciers have to drive around in are on average 18 years old with some of them still on the road with 700,000kms on the clock.
The healthy option of police foot patrols is welcomed by many observers but of course there are multiple situations where a fully functional and safe vehicle is needed in the fight against crime.
So much for the GNR out on patrol who may look in astonishment at another report today which pointed out in January this year, GNR Command in Lisbon had purchased one wooden storage locker for each of the officers working at the Centre.
There are 130 officers and the wooden lockers cost a total of €52,000, enough to keep dozens of patrol cars on the road.
The normal GNR metal cabinets, if cabinets were needed in this quantity at all, cost a fraction of the price of the upmarket wooden ones and also may be more secure.
Nobody at the GNR Command Centre was available to comment.
