Again, it has been a very busy and productive year for us at Safe Communities Portugal (SCP).
With a focus mainly on communication, in 2024 we published around 3,600 items on our Facebook (page and groups); produced 40 newsletters; undertook around 30 Crime Check features on Kiss Fm Solid Gold Sunday and wrote 12 safety and security features for the Portugal Resident.
As a qualified Civil Protection Volunteer Organisation, our Facebook coverage includes the daily monitoring of major incidents such as rural fires. For these, we provide detailed situation reports on those fires, which go beyond the initial attack stage of 90 minutes. Fortunately, with the quick response of civil protection agents (primarily the Bombeiros) and aerial response, over 90% of fires are contained within the initial attack phase.
Safe Communities is now also active on LinkedIn, X and Instagram, and our plans are to further develop these over the coming months. Our experience shows that there is an increasing use of X in respect of matters related to safety and security, very relevant to our work.
Advice and assistance
As a conservative estimate based on a daily sampling of nine enquiries a day, SCP dealt with around 2,300 enquiries from the public until mid-December, covering a diverse range of topics such as: scams and fraud, cybercrime, general crime, animal cruelty, domestic violence, neighbourly disputes, consumer complaints, clarification of government processes, rural fire matters, land cleaning and disaster preparedness.
Behind the scenes
However, at Safe Communities, much of our work goes on behind the scenes. This includes meetings with government officials, where we discuss issues aimed at creating initiatives in order to reduce the impact of climate change, extreme weather and, in the area of crime prevention, help ensure Portugal remains one of the safest places in the world.
We also participate in various events, exercises, and training programmes, and undertook research aimed at broadening our own knowledge, so we can provide a well-qualified and knowledgeable service to the public.
I would, therefore, like to give you a snapshot of some of these activities which we undertook in 2024, so you can see how we help bring about change by reflecting with officials some of the views of the foreign community through numerous meetings with the Judicial Police (PJ), GNR, PSP, IPMA, ICNF, Civil Protection entities and others during the year.
In October, SCP held a meeting with the Head of Europol/Interpol Desk in Lisbon, who is a senior official from the Judicial Police. He gave a full overview of his responsibilities, and our work was also presented. The main topic of discussion was how victims of crime overseas (who contact SCP), where the perpetrator may be based in Portugal, should be processed. From this, we established that, in such cases, the crime should be reported to authorities in the country where the victim is resident/visiting, and it is up to police in that country to make contact with their counterparts here in Portugal to aid the investigation.
Also in October, at the invitation of the Australian Ambassador, SCP conducted a presentation on our work to around 25 Consular officials from various embassies in Lisbon. Hosted by the Australian Embassy, the presentation covered the development of SCP, and its current remit as a Civil Protection Volunteer Organisation.
During a question-and-answer session, there was much discussion on crisis management and the role of embassies during major incidents as well as government communication with the population. SCP is following up with several of the embassies who were represented.
Overseas exposure
Coordinator of the European Project, Professor Domigos Viegas, from Coimbra University invited Safe Communities to be a member of the FirEUrisk Observatory, which is part of the European Project FirEURisk, given our experience and work with local communities in the management of the risk of fires. We have met around seven times online with overseas counterparts in the last year.
The highlight, however, in September was attending a workshop held in Milan at the invitation of Domingos Viegas. An excellent opportunity to network and for Safe Communities to present its work in an international forum. Around 20 experts from various countries attended the workshop physically, together with around the same number online. I attended as a member of the Observatory, being one of two members representing Portugal.
We are proud that an article featuring Safe Communities Portugal has been published in the Washington State Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network. The author, Kirsten Cook from the USA, is a freelance communications professional with a background in environmental education and wildfire adaptation. She recently moved to Portugal and is an Advisor to SCP.
Special projects
In July, Fernanda Gonçalves, management team member, and I visited the Municipal Civil Protection Headquarters in Pedrógão Grande.
This visit arose from the kind invitation of Engº Almerindo Santos, Civil Protection Coordinator of Pedrógão Grande, to discuss communication between Civil Protection and those in the foreign community living in the municipality.
The municipal civil protection’s major concern is communicating with/locating those concerned in the event of a major rural fire/emergency situation that is exacerbated by the difficulty of access, as we discovered in our tour of the municipality.
The meeting resulted in the establishment of a collaboration where both the Civil Protection and Safe Communities would work together by sharing ideas and information and developing initiatives to help overcome these problems.
Climate Change Survey
As a resident of Portugal, we are exposed to risk not only of wildfires but also earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural hazards. These can have disastrous effects, causing massive losses and damage.
In working to minimise the impacts of these hazards, and help build a more resilient society, it is important to gauge how much the local foreign population is aware of, and involved in, disaster risk management.
To do this, we are conducting a survey to learn about their concerns, level of preparedness, and ideas to become more aware and prepared for natural hazards. Over 700 people participated and the results were sent to the ANEPC, which was followed up with a meeting with the National Director of Emergency Planning in Lisbon, attended by Kirsten Cook and myself. The results of the survey have been finalised and will be publicised shortly.
We are always eager to hear from people wishing to volunteer to work with SCP, specifically at present assisting with our social media development.
Our team, Fernanda, Lília, Antonia, Jane, Clare, Mike, Jim, Raoul, Chris, Susan, Peter, Jessica and David, wish you all a very happy and safe new year.
By David Thomas
|| features@algarveresident.com
David Thomas is a former Assistant Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police, consultant to INTERPOL and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
In 2011, he founded Safe Communities Algarve to help the authorities and the community prevent crime. It is now registered as Associação SCP Safe Communities Portugal, the first national association of its type in Portugal.
913 045 093
info@safecommunitiesalgarve.com
www.safecommunitiesportugal.com
