MAIN - 11/12/1999 - Cops and guns: Stop or I'll shout

A new law decree which came into effect this week, specifies that a law enforcement officer should avoid, as far as humanly possible, to use his weapon on an assailant. The use of firearms by the authorities now has new regulations, with the majority of them being crystal clear.

Law decree 457/99 determines that any policeman should only open fire on a person once all other means at his disposal have been exhausted and if, collectively, the person is placing the lives of civilians at risk.

In the remainder of possible case scenarios, weapons should only serve to intimidate the assailant, which would be by firing into the air. However, even firing a shot into the air requires a certain course of events to make it a justifiable act.

The majority of the new law's stipulations are directed at placing all Portugal's law enforcement authorities under one umbrella, ensuring that in cases where different agencies are called to act jointly, no discrepancies exist as to their course of action.

One aspect regarding the use of firearms which has been ignored by the new legislation is the amount of training an officer requires prior to using his weapon on a live target.

Manuel Carneiro, a spokesman for the Criminal Investigation Labour Union Association, said to Público that "while policemen fire into the air there is no problem. What troubles us is the preparation of these officers regarding their firearms, be it in training, which should be extensive, or be it a more in depth knowledge of the weapon."

Manuel Carneiro added that "you cannot train a thousand men in three months, give them guns and tell them they are officers of the law."

The new law is clearly directed at preserving human life to its extremes, with the use of a firearm by an officer limited "to cases of absolute urgency where other less dangerous measures have proven ineffective."

When the officer eventually decides that all other available resources have been expended, he should aim at merely injuring the assailant, respecting the "preservation of life" clause the new act propagates.

Situations where a law enforcement officer may make use of his weapon are described by the act as follows: to repel illicit acts in progress; to capture or stop the fleeing of dangerous suspects; to free hostages; to kill an animal in need; as a means of summoning assistance or an alarm; and finally, and more obscure, to "maintain public order".

The law, as explained by the law enforcement authorities themselves, is merely to serve as an indicator to officers as to the various steps and decisions they have to contemplate prior to pulling the trigger.

The arrival of the act is for many much overdue, and is obviously the Government's answer to the public outcry against the crimes committed by a small number of men who disgrace their uniforms. In 1996, a decapitation at the Sacavém GNR station house grabbed news headlines when it was discovered that the head of Carlos Rosa was removed in order to conceal the fact that he had been shot in the head by a GNR officer. Also during the same year, a petty-thief was shot several times in the back while fleeing arrest. A crime which resulted in the Évora PSP (City Police) Commander losing his job. Both cases resulted in murder convictions of police officers.

Of the three law enforcement authorities operating in Portugal, the PSP has between 1991 and 1998 been prone to most allegations of illicit acts (2793) by its personnel; the GNR follow with 884, while the PJ (Criminal or Judicial Police), are third with 300 accusations of wrong doing against civilians.