Lisbon, March 7, 2025 (Lusa) - The mayor of Lisbon on Friday reinforced his call to the government to increase the number of police officers in the city, to ensure "at least 56 night watchmen" and to install video protection in areas with security problems.
"Lisbon is a safe city, but that safety has to be worked on every day," said Carlos Moedas (PSD), after a meeting of the Municipal Security Council, the first this year, which took place in the Paços do Concelho (city hall), with the presence of the commanders of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the Public Security Police (PSP) and the Lisbon Municipal Police, Luís Elias and José Carvalho Figueira, respectively, and the Councillor for Security, Rui Cordeiro (PSD).
The mayor highlighted the joint work between the PSP and the Municipal Police, namely the implementation of joint operations in the city's forest parks, with patrols on foot and on horseback, and the extension of community policing to a total of 15 areas.
In this 2021-2025 mandate, according to Carlos Moedas, four areas were newly integrated into community policing between the Municipal Police and PSP, namely the districts of Mouraria (Arroios/Santa Maria Maior), Picheleira (Beato), Santa Cruz and Bom Pastor (Benfica) and Quinta do Lavrado (Penha de França), which joined 11 areas of the city where this was already happening, from Bairro Padre Cruz (Carnide) to Avenida da Liberdade (Santo António).
The Social Democrat mayor reiterated his call to the PSD/CDS-PP-led government for more PSP and Municipal Police officers in the capital to reinforce street policing, emphasising that "200 more municipal police officers" are needed, recruited from the PSP.
"A safe city also depends on the visibility of the police," he said.
As part of the revision of the municipal night watchman regulations, Lisbon city council hopes to "return to having night watchmen", workers from the municipality who have to be trained by the PSP, with a decree from the ministry of the interior (MAI) still needed for the process to go ahead and the city to have ‘at least 56 night watchmen’.
At this meeting of the City Security Council, video protection was also a topic, with the council highlighting the installation of 30 video surveillance cameras in Cais do Sodré, where it recognises that more cameras are needed in the adjacent streets, including Rua de São Paulo, and the implementation process in Campo das Cebolas (32).
Carlos Moedas emphasised that he has already asked the MAI to install video protection in other areas of the city, such as Martim Moniz, Mouraria, Arroios, São Domingos de Benfica and Avenida da Liberdade.
Lisbon currently has 64 video surveillance cameras in the city - 27 in Bairro Alto since 2014, seven in the Miradouro de Santa Catarina area since 2022 and 30 in Cais do Sodré since February of this year - and the current plan includes a total of around 250 cameras, with Campo das Cebolas (32), Restauradores (17) and Ribeira das Naus (20), plus another 11 areas: Praça do Comércio, Cais das Colunas, Praça D. Pedro IV, Praça da Figueira, Praça das Naus and Cais do Sodré. Pedro IV, Praça da Figueira, Rua Augusta, Rua do Ouro, Rua da Prata, Rua do Comércio, Rua dos Fanqueiros, Santa Apolónia - Rua Caminhos de Ferro and Santa Apolónia - Avenida Infante D. Henrique.
Asked about the delay in implementing this plan, Carlos Moedas said that "there is a 15-year delay", pointing out that "the video protection cameras have been in place since 2009, so it's a really long delay, because for 10 years nothing happened", blaming the previous PS executives, without recognising that the first cameras were installed before the current mandate.
"Now we can't keep changing everything. There are cameras that were decided in 2017 and have not been implemented. We have the authorisation, we're moving forward and now we have to improve. We have to do it elsewhere," he emphasised.
Regarding the perception of insecurity and crime data, the mayor said that he is waiting for the Annual Internal Security Report, but said that at the Municipal Security Council meeting he wasn't discussing numbers, but specific situations, including ‘violent actions’ in Benfica and São Domingos de Benfica in recent weeks, including robberies, in which the PSP took immediate action, resulting in 10 arrests.
"If the figures are better, I, as mayor, am happy, but I can't lose my concern [...]. If they're positive, and I hope they are, it's a good sign for Lisbon," said Carlos Moedas, pointing to “a lot of muggings of people in the street” as security problems, as well as the presence of international criminal groups.
Noting that he receives ‘many complaints’, the mayor emphasised the importance of joint action between the PSP and the municipal police: "It's not pretending that the problems don't exist, the problems do exist and it's by acting on them [that they are solved]."
SSM/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
