Faro, Portugal, Aug. 27, 2024 (Lusa) - The Algarve's capital, Faro, inaugurated a video surveillance system on Tuesday with 41 cameras. The system, operated by the PSP 24 hours a day, is installed in 32 of the capital's busiest neighbourhoods.
‘This adds security, both for the nightlife and citizens who walk around Faro during the day, as well as monitoring mobility in the city's main arteries. I think that as of today, we'll all be safer,’ the mayor of Faro, Rogério Bacalhau, told reporters.
The 32 locations were selected by the PSP police force and, according to the mayor, relate to ‘the history of problems’ and complaints registered in ‘black spots’ in the city. The aim is to prevent crime and crack down on road offences.
The municipality's overall investment, which included the contract to extend the fibre optic network and the system's installation, was ‘more than €400,000, plus VAT’, said the mayor of Faro.
The second district commander of the Faro PSP, Lieutenant Mário Oliveira, explained during the network's inauguration session that 27 cameras have been installed in shopping and nightlife areas and the remaining 14 on the city's six main roads, operating uninterruptedly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
To respect privacy protection, the windows, doors and private areas filmed are ‘pixelated’, the images will only be kept for 30 days, the information is encrypted and the images only go from the police to the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Access to the system is only available to trained officers and the extraction of images is only authorised for criminal investigation officers, he added.
The district commander of the PSP, Superintendent Dário Prates, said that this project had been ‘long awaited by Faro City Council, the PSP and the citizens’, and guaranteed that it would be used ‘always respecting and protecting fundamental rights’, being an ‘essential tool in supporting police activity and crime prevention’.
Lieutenant Mário Oliveira recalled that the video surveillance system had been implemented in phases in the Algarve, with 26 cameras activated in Olhão in 2021 and 61 cameras in Portimão in 2022.
He said these two video surveillance systems have been used to collect criminal evidence in 181 criminal cases: 137 in Portimão and 44 in Olhão.
The PSP's second district commander also revealed that the PSP is working on extending the video surveillance system in these two cities, with an increase in the number of cameras, ‘which is in the process of being authorised’, and also on installing new systems in the cities of Lagos and Tavira.
The national director of the PSP, Superintendent Luís Carrilho, and the secretary of state for internal administration, Telmo Correia, attended the session marking the start of the operation of Faro's video surveillance system.
In his speech, Correia emphasised that video surveillance is one of the technological means that the government intends to promote, along with cameras for individual use (‘bodycams’), "which is a more complex process", contributing to "a more valued police force".
Correia stressed that video surveillance ‘makes sense in many cases’, citing data from the PSP that in Amadora, in the area where cameras were installed, crime ‘fell by something like 60% and serious crimes were avoided, including attempted murder’.
EYP/ADB // ADB.
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