By PAULO SILVESTRE paulo.silvestre@theresidentgroup.com
Portugal’s Minister of Internal Affairs has acknowledged that policing and community safety must be strengthened in the Algarve.
Rui Pereira made the comment during a presentation of the Algarve Seguro (Safe Algarve) project in Faro on May 28.
This pioneer project from the Portuguese government will start operating in the Algarve next month, with security forces equipped with new technological tools to support their activities.
These include GPS for vehicles, connecting private alarm company personnel with the police forces and the automatic reading of licence plates with fixed and mobile CCTV cameras.
Rui Pereira said there were three main factors that caused great concern for safety in the Algarve, namely “the floating population that the region has, especially in the summer months, the huge dispersion of housing and the fact that, in an economic context, it’s a region of great importance for Portuguese tourism”.
He added: “We know the security problems that the Algarve is having at the moment, and we want to do our best so that the Algarve continues to be considered a safe region, as before.”
This project will see 225 GNR and PSP police vehicles equipped with GPS, with geo-referencing so that the position of each police car is known, enabling them to respond quickly to any problem of public disorder or criminal activity.
It is completed by the linking of private alarm companies with the police and the introduction of CCTV cameras across the Algarve.
Rui Pereira said: “This action will trigger a faster police response, especially to residents and shop owners in the more remote and higher risk zones in the region.”
The detection of stolen vehicles is also to be ‘beefed up’, said Rui Pereira.
And the Algarve, he said, is one of the regions in Portugal where there has been a “further strengthening of the GNR and PSP police forces”.
During the ceremony of the Algarve Seguro, the Faro Civil Governor Isilda Gomes emphasised the attention being paid to the Algarve by the government, in particular by “improving the working conditions of security forces”.
She said: “With the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, security forces and the mayors of the region’s councils, it will be possible to act with greater efficiency.”
She added: “Security is a structural support for sustainable tourism and has to be regarded as a priority in the Algarve, a region whose economy is based on tourism.”
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