The Municipality of Portimão has a dossier on video surveillance ready to be delivered to the competent authorities, but this time the application was prepared by the PSP, in close collaboration with the local authority.
The new candidacy foresees the installation of 18 video cameras, 10 in various locations in Praia da Rocha, with a special focus on Avenida Tomás Cabreira, where most of the bars are located, and eight installed in the Center of Portimão, in the commercial area.
Manuel da Luz, mayor of Portimão, highlighted the Sul Informação that the inclusion of the city's commercial area, as well as the fact that the PSP was preparing the candidacy are “the big news” of this new dossier.
"After the first attempt in 2008, [in which the National Data Protection Commission only authorized the installation of only two of the 22 cameras requested and therefore the process did not advance] we remade the whole process", added the mayor.
This dossier was completed last week and is now being analyzed by the municipal executive.
On the table are two questions: "Will it make sense to go forward with the candidacy immediately when this Government has already said that it will review the law?" And, taking into account the large investment that the installation of 18 cameras means, "are there conditions to include it in the next budget" of the Portimão municipality?
“This is the political decision that will have to be taken”, admits Manuel da Luz.
As for the first issue, the Government approved, at the meeting of the Council of Ministers last Wednesday, a bill that revises the regulation of the use of video cameras by security forces and services in public places, «with the purpose of adopt policies that contribute to making Portugal a safer country, through the attribution of greater efficiency to the framework of action of the security forces and services».
With the approval of this diploma, the Government says it intends "to streamline the steps of the authorization process for placing cameras to be used by security forces and services in the protection of people and property, as well as extending their use to the prevention of forest fires". But the new law still needs to be approved and regulated.
In relation to Portimão, everything points to the City Council waiting to formalize the candidacy already with the new legal framework, «all the more so as the most recent news confirms that, who will decide whether to authorize or not, are the security forces, sending if the Data Protection Commission to technical advice. As, in our case, the PSP was responsible for the new process, everything indicates that it will be easier», explained the mayor.
The objectives of installing the 18 video surveillance cameras are “strictly linked to tourist activity and the feeling of security. In other words, the local economy relies heavily on tourism, an activity that can be very sensitive to security issues, and in this regard, we want to prevent this situation with an extremely efficient mechanism. On the other hand, residents will also feel safer, knowing that their property and their own safety are safeguarded in this way», concluded Manuel da Luz.
But Portimão already has a video camera system installed in the city. These devices are mounted in a kind of metal guardhouses located at the entrance to the Ponte Velha over the Arade and at the other entrances to the city (Rotunda das Cardosas and next to the old cooperative winery).
However, unlike Faro, whose cameras came into operation last Tuesday and are intended only for the control of car traffic, being operated by the PSP of the Algarve capital, in Portimão the devices are controlled by the City Council, but which only has access, by legal imposition, to traffic monitoring data.
“This was, in fact, the first objective that led to the installation of these video cameras. In very general terms, we know the exact number of vehicles and the type of vehicles that entered the city (light, heavy, bicycles, passengers), as well as the exact time at which they did so," explained a source from the Office of the President of the City Council. Portimao. All other information that camcorders could possibly provide is left out.
"The PSP still does not have access to the images, that is, this form of video surveillance on the road is not yet working", guaranteed the same source.
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