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The Inspectorate of Macao Judiciary Police was established following the enactment of the Decree-Law No. 43125 on 19th August 1960 by the then Macao Government, with the view to consolidate the overseas (meaning the overseas territories of the former Portuguese Empire, including Macao) investigative procedures and the handling of preliminary hearings. This was carried out to boost the protection of the society against criminal activities, in light of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and the Portuguese Code of Criminal Procedures.
Such an Inspectorate was led by a Assistant Coordinator of Criminal Investigation, whose office includes additional tasks equivalent to the ones performed by deputy directors and coordinators of the Portuguese Judiciary Police. Holders of degrees of Bachelor of Law, with track record, or magistrates of the Public Prosecution were the ones eligible to take up the position of head of the Inspectorate, and the appointment was on the basis of renewable fixed-term mandate.

Under the provisions of the Decree-Law No. 430/71, the Inspectorate was upgraded to Sub-directorate on 12th October 1971. The position of assistant coordinator was then abolished and replaced by the post of deputy director, and one vacancy for coordinator of criminal investigation was added on to the career structure of the Sub-directorate. Magistrates of the Public Prosecution, under renewable fixed-term mandates, held the position of deputy-director.

On 19th December 1975, the Sub-directorate of Macao Judiciary Police was upgraded to Directorate, under the provisions of Decree-law No. 705/75. It was subordinated to the Macao Governor, but the authority to oversee the execution of criminal proceedings rested with the Portuguese Attorney General.
In order to outline the functioning of the Directorate of Macao Judiciary Police, the Legislative Assembly of Macao enacted the Law No. 19/79/M of 4th of August, i.e. the Organic Law of the Judiciary Police. Such a law provided that the Directorate of Macao Judiciary Police was a law enforcement agency that enjoyed the prerogatives of crime prevention and investigation, and tasked to render assistance to judicial authorities. It was hierarchically organised in rank and orders, subordinated to the Governor, and performed under the guidance of the Public Prosecution on areas related to criminal investigation. Nonetheless, the Directorate had the authority to file investigative proceedings if charges had not been pressed.
An additional act, the Decree-Law No. 34/86/M, enacted in 1986, laid down the prerequisites for taking up the position of Director and Deputy Director. The Director had to be a judge or a magistrate of the Public Prosecution. Judges of Courts or Magistrates of the Public Prosecution, Senior Coordinators of Criminal Investigation from the Judiciary Police and holders of degrees of Bachelor of Law, with at least 5 years working experience in the legal field, were eligible to be appointed by the Macao Governor.

Following the reversion of Macao’s sovereignty to the Motherland on 20th December 1999, the Judiciary Police became directly accountable to the Secretary for Security, but the supervisory role of the Public Prosecution over criminal investigation and enquiries remained unchanged, and so did the requirements for taking up the positions of Director and Deputy Director.

The prevention and the investigation of criminal activities have been the prerogatives of this institution for more than forty years, coupled by the task of providing support to the judicial authorities. To keep pace with the continuing development of Macao society, the Judiciary Police had to expand and make several adjustments to its functional structure. Areas such as prerogatives and jurisdiction, career structure, human resources and methodology of criminal investigation are subjected to regular updates.
With the advent of the XXI Century, the Judiciary Police is endeavouring to fully comply with the government guidelines, and developing efforts to assure an enduring social stability. To achieve these goals much has been done to grant skilful performance of the tasks that the law conferred to this institution. We sincerely hope that we could, in future, count with the support and the involvement of the rest of the public service departments and people from all walks of life, so as to provide us with propitious grounds to move forward with success.