City of Lisbon

Local Authority

The Lisbon Municipal Police (LMP) is a specialized body of armed and uniformed police officers and a civilian staff, integrated in the structure of the Lisbon Municipality (CML-Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, 8.625 workers). The city of Lisbon, Portugal’s capital and the centre of a Metropolitan Region with a population of 2.8 million, is divided administratively in 24 civil parishes, with a total area of 85.87 km2. The LMP is currently composed of 648 workers and has the main mission to ensure, in the city of Lisbon, the compliance with all laws and regulations relating to local authorities competences (e.g. Urban Mobility, Public Space, Lodging, Protection of Nature and the Environment, Public Health, Urban Construction) and to cooperate with other security forces in protecting local communities. In the last decade the LMP has been developing a preventive approach to improve urban security responses through a community policing strategy, that places emphasis on the citizens participation as coproducers of community safety. This model of policing has then been rooted in key features such as the early involvement of partners and residents in community safety partnerships and through the selection and training of dedicated community policing teams to work in partnership in designated Lisbon neighbourhoods.