Crime rises 2.9% in Lisbon due to increased police activity, PSP says
The PSP attributes the rise in crimes such as drug trafficking and pickpocketing to increased police presence on Lisbon's streets. Street robberies are declining, but extortions and kidnappings are rising.
More arrests and patrols explain rise in overall crime in Cometlis area
The 2.9% rise in overall crime in the greater Lisbon area in the first eight months of the year compared with the same period in 2024 is explained in large part by increased police presence on the streets — not by an actual worsening of violence. This is the conclusion of the PSP itself, advanced in an interview with news agency Lusa by the commander of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command (Cometlis), superintendent-chief Luís Elias.
According to RTP, Elias emphasised that crimes such as drug trafficking, illegal driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, resistance and coercion of officials, and disobedience recorded increases in the first eight months of the year — but are, for the most part, what he classified as "proactive policing crimes": occurrences that only emerge in statistics through direct intervention by the authorities.
"They only appear in the statistics as a result of police activity," said Elias, adding that police proactivity has "a leverage factor also in overall crime."
In the same period, the PSP made 500 more arrests compared with the first eight months of the previous year.
Violent and serious crime declines — with exceptions
In the opposite direction, violent and serious crime fell 0.4% in the Cometlis area. Luís Elias linked this decline to a reduction in street robberies and theft by snatching, which he defined as a "priority" as part of his strategy as metropolitan commander.
"These are the ones with the greatest statistical significance and these are the ones I defined as a priority with regard to the criminal institution and also detection in flagrante delicto," he stated.
Nevertheless, within violent and serious crime, extortions and kidnappings recorded a rising trend, although the official did not provide concrete figures for these categories.
Transnational pickpocketing concerns authorities
Theft by pickpockets, which does not fall within the category of violent and serious crime, but which the PSP monitors with special attention, underwent a significant transformation in recent years. According to Elias, the phenomenon ceased to be associated with long-standing Portuguese pickpockets to become dominated by itinerant international groups.
"In recent years, theft by pickpockets is clearly associated with transnational crime, itinerant crime, international groups that move to Portugal with this sole objective," the commander explained.
The PSP has identified groups that remain in Portugal for a few days or weeks before returning to other countries. These groups, according to Elias, circulate through various European cities — including in Spain, France and Italy — and their members accumulate criminal records in multiple countries.
The growth of tourism in Lisbon is pointed to as an aggravating factor: "Tourism has many positive factors, particularly as leverage for the development of our economy, but it also has this factor of attracting certain types of criminal phenomena that carry out their activity in cities and in places with large concentrations of people, namely tourists."
"Rolex gang" and risk of national imitation
Luís Elias also referred to another dimension of concern: robberies organised by international groups, notably the so-called "Rolex gang" — a criminal group originating from South America responsible for violent street assaults on drivers of top-of-the-range vehicles and people with outward signs of wealth. The investigation of this case is being handled by the Judicial Police.
The official expressed concern about the possible emergence of nationally-based groups that might attempt to replicate this modus operandi, warning that this could happen "with disastrous results".
Cometlis has jurisdiction over nine municipalities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area: Amadora, Cascais, Lisbon, Loures, Odivelas, Oeiras, Sintra, Vila Franca de Xira and Torres Vedras.
Source: RTP