Portugal Lifts Age, Height Bars for Police; Unions Demand Wage Hike

Over coffee this morning many Portuguese were still digesting the latest attempt to stop the exodus from the Polícia de Segurança Pública. Lisbon has lifted the age ceiling and scrapped height limits, hoping to entice fresh blood. Yet the unions insist the measure treats the symptoms, not the disease, and point to salaries that barely keep pace with inflation and shifts that swallow family life.

Why the uniform has lost its appeal

Portugal routinely tops European safety rankings, but keeping streets calm is taking its toll on the people in blue. Officers complain of wage stagnation, relentless overtime overload, a Lisbon housing crunch, and promotion blockages that can freeze a career for a decade. Younger applicants who once saw the badge as a ticket to stability now eye private security, IT or emigration. A police academy tutor in Torres Novas told this newspaper that he spends every induction week explaining why recruits won’t earn as much as their friends in retail during the first three years. The result is a vicious circle: fewer candidates mean longer hours for those already on the beat, fuelling exhaustion and early exits.

What precisely changes on 28 October

Under Portaria 367/2025, the entrance age rises from 30 to 35 years, and the controversial minimum-height rule disappears — previously 1.60 m for women and 1.65 m for men. Candidates still need the 12th-grade certificate (or proof they are finishing it) and must clear familiar fitness hurdles such as the Illinois agility run and the 1,000-metre dash. The Interior Ministry says the update “modernises” access and aligns Portugal with countries like France, which long ago ditched height bars. A digital application window on the PSP portal is now permanently open, replacing the old one-month recruitment drives.

Union verdict: “cosmetic surgery on a broken bone”

The country’s biggest police union, ASPP-PSP, labels the new rules a “desperate patch”. President Paulo Jorge Santos argues that without a €600 boost to the risk supplement—currently a flat €100—“nobody over 30 will swap a stable job for night patrols on Bairro Alto”. The SNOP, representing inspectors and officers, calls for the age cap to be moved to 40 years (or 45 for ex-military). Both organisations remind the Government that a nearly identical reform unveiled in January was withdrawn within weeks after unions threatened court action for lack of consultation. This time the paperwork is watertight, but goodwill is thinner than ever.

The numbers behind the empty desks

Official data obtained by Público show that candidate rolls plummeted from more than 16,000 in the 1990s to just 3,392 this year, even though the force tried to fill 800 academy seats. Only 633 cadets showed up on day one. Another course ended with 430 graduates for 600 slots—an attrition rate the academy had never seen. The pipeline looks even shakier when compared with the GNR, whose military culture and rural postings still attract queues twice as long. Analysts link the divergence to the PSP’s concentration in expensive urban centres.

What would bring recruits back?

Experts inside and outside the force sketch a three-point plan. First, salaries indexed to inflation plus a meaningful risk premium; several EU partners pay rookies €1,600 net, against Portugal’s €1,030. Second, a housing allowance in metropolitan zones where rents swallow half a starting wage. Third, a national media campaign that reframes policing as high-tech public service—cybercrime, domestic-violence intervention, community mediation—rather than perpetual crowd control. Parliament’s budget hearings in November will reveal whether the Interior Ministry has the political capital, and the cash, to move beyond incremental tweaks. For now, the badge is lighter, the age bar wider, but the recruitment calendar still reads half-empty.