Police

For centuries public security in Funchal was in the hands of the alcaide (town officer with police and jail duties), an official who, in the time of the captaincies, was proposed by the donatary but appointed by the Senate (senado, the municipal council). To assist the alcaide in the duties and tasks he was obliged to carry out, there was at first a certain number of men appointed by the donatary, who, according to a decree of 1450, were to be ‘of good life’. At the end of the 15th century the Council appointed for each district of the town a certain number of officers, called constables (quadrilheiros), whose duty was to keep order and protect the property of the residents.

Despite all these police officials, public security in Funchal does not seem to have been assured. In 1489 the captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) allowed ‘merchants and men of standing’ who owned armour of ‘helmet and lance’ to carry sword and dagger, and shortly afterwards extended this permission to all married men who owned a house, but only until the ‘bell was rung’. When travelling, married men were permitted to carry sword and dagger.

Under the charter (foral) of 6 August 1515, the revenue of the alcaideship (alcaidaria) consisted of the gaol fees (carceragem) paid by prisoners and the fines paid by card players, the excommunicated, brawlers, frequenters of brothels and all persons found in the streets, armed or unarmed, after the ‘bell was rung’.

The ‘curfew bell’ (sino de correr) hung in the town hall (Paços do Concelho), in Rua do Aljube (‘bishop’s prison street’), and when it rang at night the constables went out to patrol their districts or wards. Machico also had a ‘curfew bell’, which was placed beside the town hall building.

At no time was the town police so disregarded, or rather so powerless to curb the excesses of robbers and brawlers, as under Philippine rule.

As we saw when dealing with Castilian rule, the city’s streets were then frequently stained with blood from private feuds, and three judicial commissions came to Madeira to punish the criminals and restore order on the island.

The Englishman Hans Sloane, who visited Madeira in 1687, saw that businessmen carried a long sword under their cloaks and a sharp knife or dagger in their pockets. This seems to mean that even at that time little reliance was placed on the town police to defend the lives and property of citizens. Ovington, who was on this island in 1689, also observed that many of the inhabitants went about armed.

While he governed Madeira, the governor and captain-general João António de Sá Pereira showed the greatest zeal and energy in curbing the abuses committed by nobles and commoners alike. Even so, public security seems to have become known on the island only after constitutional government was established on solid foundations throughout the country.

On 20 May 1812 the Council resolved to ask the captain-general (capitão-general, military governor of Madeira) to establish night-time military patrols ‘so as to put an end to the robberies committed not only in sacred places, warehouses and offices, but even in dwelling houses’. On 13 January 1814 it decided to write to the same authority asking him to place at its disposal each night 80 men of the territorial militia (ordenanças), in order ‘to put into effect the system of patrols newly ordered’. On 19 November 1796 the Council had ordered the constables (quadrilheiros) to wear a badge so that they could be recognised.

In 1826 the city was patrolled by men of the 7th Infantry Regiment (infantaria n.º 7). After the granting of the Charter, however, these same forces became a source of disorder, since the regiment was absolutist. This led the Council to ask the Governor to suspend the patrols and to forbid the soldiers to leave barracks after 7 in the evening.

From 1828 to 1830, that is, while the notorious José Maria Monteiro, nicknamed ‘the Baize’ (o Baeta), governed Madeira, the liberals suffered the harshest persecution. It was enough for someone to be accused of being a malhado (derogatory nickname for a liberal under the Miguelist regime) for him to be savagely beaten at once by the Miguelite (supporter of the absolutist King Miguel) mob, with no help from the agents of authority. The constables were then a source of disorder. Egged on by the governor, who often went with them on their night patrols, they committed the worst excesses, arresting and beating every constitutionalist who dared to go out into the street. In 1830 there were also constables in Câmara de Lobos (‘seals’ den’).

The last alcaide (town officer with police and jail duties) of Funchal was appointed in 1832, so the office existed for as long as absolute government lasted. The Funchal Council also appointed alcaides for Caniço, Câmara de Lobos and Ribeira Brava, who carried out police duties in those places.

In 1834, after liberal principles had been proclaimed in Madeira, the prefect (prefeito) created the posts of commissioners of the municipal superintendents (provedor) and of police corporals in the parishes, with the direction of police services entrusted to the Superintendent. Some years later a body of 26 guards or process officers was set up in the city for public security, under the municipal administrator (administrador do concelho, the government's representative).

In 1838 A Chronica (‘The Chronicle’) called for the law of 22 February of that year, which had created municipal guards in district capitals, to be extended to Madeira. It added, however, that there was then complete calm in Funchal, even though the only patrols here were those of the Municipal Administration (Administração do Concelho, the government's local civil office). At that time the posts of police corporal were much sought after by people of all classes, because those who held them were exempt by law from service in the National Guard.

On 14 June 1856 the civil governor reorganised the police once again. He left 3 process officers (oficiais de diligências) with the Municipal Administrator and placed the other 23 under the orders of an officer of the regular army (tropa de linha), who was given the title of police chief. Besides the chief there was a deputy chief. The force was at the disposal of the civil governor, but was bound to meet the requests of the Municipal Administrator.

The first military chief of police was Major Ascenso Elminio de Bettencourt, and the second Lieutenant Jaime Florindo Pereira. The latter was in the habit of calling the troop of 23 men under his command the municipal guard, although the police regulations did not authorise him to do so. In 1857 the police were housed in the building of the former Convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi), and their commander was the same Lieutenant Jaime F. Pereira.

Shortly afterwards the police were reorganised again, now with a director or chief, officers and soldiers, and the whole corps was once more placed under the Municipal Administrator. Under this new organisation there was no longer an officer of the regular army in the police, and command of the corps passed to the former deputy chief António José de Sá, who had already been director of the police before the reform of 1856. Although the policemen were called soldiers, it should be noted that these men did not answer to the military authorities.

On 3 August 1864 Pedro de Alcântara Góis was appointed process officer of the Municipal Administration and director of the police. He continued in the latter post after becoming a copying clerk in the same Administration on 2 October 1865. The law (carta de lei) of 2 July 1867 created the post of commissioner of the civil police of Funchal, but it was not until 1877 that Alcântara Góis was entrusted with it, in recognition of the services he had already rendered in directing the city’s public security corps.

The Funchal police were reorganised again on 21 December 1876 and 7 December 1894. The regulations of the latter date laid down that the Municipal Administrator should also become Police Commissioner as soon as that post fell vacant. The same regulations provided for 2 chiefs, 1 clerk (escrivão), 4 corporals and 50 guards, divided between 2 stations, each commanded by a chief.

The law of 12 June 1901 restored the posts of Police Commissioner in districts with a special organisation. The decree of 27 April 1918, which we suppose was never put into effect in Funchal, placed at the head of each district a general commissioner with oversight of all police services. As for the establishment of the rest of the commissariat’s staff, it is still today constituted as laid down in the regulations of 7 December 1894, and the division of the civil police corps into two stations also remains (1921).

Although some progress has been made since 1834 towards establishing public security in Funchal, there is no doubt that our city is still very far from being regarded as properly policed. If the grave outrages that disgraced the streets of Funchal in more or less distant times are no longer committed, countless irregularities and excesses are, and the police, few in number and almost always negligent, cannot or will not repress them (1921).

It was supposed that bringing a detachment of the Republican Guard (see that entry) to Madeira would be of great advantage. However, the constant conflicts provoked by men of that guard and the many abuses of power they committed showed that this was not the way to establish order and security on this island. After being kept away from police duties in the city for some time, the Republican Guard, which had come here in 1919, was finally ordered to leave the island, departing for Lisbon on the April and May 1922 sailings of the steamer San Miguel.

To establish in Funchal the order and discipline that ought to exist in every civilised land, it is essential to enlarge the district’s civil police force, as was said at the session of the District General Council (Junta Geral) of 22 December 1921, and to admit to it only robust, intelligent individuals of good conduct. A large and populous city such as ours cannot be policed with 50 men, some of them almost unfit for service, above all in an age of disrespect and social decay such as the one we are living through (1921).

Since 18 November 1934 the various police services have been housed in their own building in Rua da Carreira (‘track’).