The order, signed by the Ministers of Finance and Internal Administration, authorises the opening of 300 places for admission to the agent training course to be started in 2024, with a view to joining the ranks of the Public Security Police.

This year, the PSP held a competition to form a reserved register for admission to the agent training course aimed at entering the career, with 2,800 young people competing.

In a response then sent to the Lusa agency, the national management of the PSP stated that 2,865 candidates competed for the agent course, 178 fewer than last year when 3,043 competed, 640 fewer than in 2022 (3,505), 2,709 fewer than in 2021 (5,574 ) and 321 less than in 2020 (3,186).

Other data that Lusa had access to shows that there are fewer and fewer candidates for PSP agents.

In the 1990s there were more than 16,000 candidates and in 2012 there were more than 10,000, now less than 3,000.