Police organisation
Polícia de Segurança Pública
One of the three general-competence criminal-police bodies named by Portugal’s Law on the Organisation of Criminal Investigation.
At a glance
- Official name
- Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP)
- System
- Portugal
- Level of government
- National
- Kind of body
- National police force
- Status
- Currently operating
- Facts last checked against sources
- 13 September 2026
What it is
Article 3(1) of Law 49/2008 names the Polícia de Segurança Pública alongside the Polícia Judiciária and the Guarda Nacional Republicana as the bodies of general competence in criminal investigation. Article 2 places all of them under the direction and functional dependence of the competent judicial authority at each stage of the process. The force’s own site could not be read, so this entry goes no further than the statute does.
What it covers
National, as a general-competence criminal-police body. Its territorial relationship to the GNR is not established here.
Broad responsibilities
- Criminal investigation as a body of general competence, under the direction and functional dependence of the competent judicial authority
Elsewhere on this site
- Who polices what — how Portugal is structured, against other systems
Other organisations to compare
- Guarda Nacional Republicana — Portugal
- Polícia Judiciária — Portugal
Where this connects
Institutions: National police.
Sources
Diário da República (via the Polícia Judiciária official site) · Legislation · 2008-08-27 · link verified 2026-07-26
The Diário da República's consolidated text of the LOIC as at 12 November 2021, hosted on the Polícia Judiciária site. The Law has since been amended by Lei 24/2022 and Lei 2/2023, which this copy does not show. Compared on 10 October 2026 with the Diário da República's consolidated version as at 16 January 2023 (as reproduced on EUR-Lex): Articles 2 and 3 are unchanged, and Article 7(2), amended by Lei 2/2023, still reserves a listed set of crimes to the Polícia Judiciária. Supports Art. 2(1) ("a direcção da investigação cabe à autoridade judiciária competente em cada fase do processo" — direction of the investigation belongs to the competent judicial authority at each stage) and Art. 2(4) (the criminal-police bodies act under the direction and functional dependence of that authority); Art. 3(1) naming the three general-competence criminal-police bodies — the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) and the Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP); and Art. 7(2) reserving the most serious crimes to the Polícia Judiciária.