Portugal: + normal police (immediate events such as car accidents, small burglars) + legal police (white-collar events such as economic crimes, bribes, trafic

Portugal: + normal police (immediate events such as car accidents, small burglars) + legal police (white-collar events such as economic crimes, bribes, traficking) + military police (acting as normal police on remote/wide field regions) + townhall police (events such as stadium security, car tickets) + secret police (mostly to identify society risks before they become problems) + military (in case of war/calamity they replace have precedence on all above) This decentralization works OK. When the agents investigating a specific crime are suspected to be corrupt, at some point you see another agency taking forward the investigation and exposing the dirt. A recent case was the investigation about the criminal fires going in Portugal last summer. The military police was suspected of closing their eyes on the incident where +60 people died and the legal police took the case away from them.