"There is no increase in crime. There is, in fact, a significant reduction in the crime reported", said Luís Simões, during a hearing in the Health and Social Affairs Parliamentary Committee of the archipelago's parliament, to which he provided clarifications on the Autonomous Region's capacity for intervention on addictive behaviour.

The commander of the PSP acknowledged, however, that in the months of July and August there was a "growing feeling of insecurity," due to "greater visibility of situations of drug use, begging and the permanence of citizens in public shelters.

Luís Simões explained that the police "cannot be the answer" to questions related to addiction, marginality and social exclusion, because they need "integrated solutions".

He indicated that during the first 10 months of 2020, general crime in the autonomous region decreased by 8.5 percent and violent and serious crime by 16.1 percent, but there was an increase in the number of arrests made by the PSP of 1.8 percent.