“Feeling of impunity” among local drug dealers has spurred the mayor to seek solutions in Lisbon
Lagoa mayor Luís Encarnação headed to Lisbon yesterday with a clear message: Carvoeiro needs more police, and fast.
It’s the same story every summer for years: businessowners watch, powerless, as residents and tourists are approached in broad daylight by drug dealers, who sometimes employ aggressive and intimidating tactics to try to coax people into buying. And as police are rarely to be seen, they know they can get away with it. This very “feeling of impunity” is one of the reasons why the mayor travelled to the capital, accompanied by Lagoa and Carvoeiro parish union president Joaquim João, to meet with GNR police’s Operational Commander, Lieutenant-General Borlido da Rocha, and demand more policing in the popular village.
As the mayor has pointed out, people no longer feel safe in Carvoeiro due to a lack of policing, which has begun to “seriously affect” the image of the village, the municipality of Lagoa and the Algarve as a whole. However, Encarnação highlighted that this lack of policing affects the entire region, particularly in the summer, when scores of holidaymakers arrive in the Algarve for their summer holidays. “If year-round police staffing isn’t enough for the basics, it’s nowhere near enough for peak season,” he argued.
This wasn’t the first time the issue was raised. The mayor reminded the national command of earlier discussions with regional GNR leaders — including Colonel Marco Henriques in Faro and Captain Silva from the Silves post — where he had already flagged the lack of police visibility and the resulting sense of impunity for those causing trouble.
The meeting appears to have worked, as GNR leadership committed to boosting police presence in Carvoeiro with a mix of visible patrols, including mounted police criminal investigation teams. Patrols under the Tourist Support initiative will also be deployed across the municipality.
Meanwhile, following previous talks, GNR officers have now been stationed at Praia da Marinha since July 7, focusing on traffic control and cracking down on illegal parking.
