Carlos Moedas was speaking to journalists after a meeting in Lisbon with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Maria Lúcia Amaral, a meeting that had been requested on 9 June “as a matter of urgency” to discuss “answers to the security problems that the city faces”.

“It was an excellent meeting, I think I felt a dynamic in the Ministry of Internal Affairs that I haven’t felt for a long time, but above all, I felt a minister with a vision for what is specific to the city of Lisbon”, said the mayor.

According to the mayor, “there is recognition, but above all, there is a vision and a plan” for the city, and it was agreed with the minister to look at the situation in Lisbon in relation to the number of necessary PSP and Municipal Police officers.

“We are going to establish a specific action plan for Lisbon and I think it is very important, it shows the minister’s vision and also shows recognition of the situation in Lisbon”, he reiterated.

Carlos Moedas recalled that Lisbon, the country’s capital, “has many specificities that are not like other cities”, especially since it has 570,000 inhabitants and “more than a million people enter and leave every day”.

The mayor, elected by the Novos Tempos coalition, also added that there are no dates for this strategy, recalling that the idea “was launched here”, and thanked Maria de Lúcia Amaral, “because it is a necessary plan for Lisbon”.

“Whether it’s in terms of numbers of PSP, Municipal Police, joint actions, mixed patrols, night guards, the Municipal Police’s capacity to make arrests here – all of this will be part of this approach”, he explained.

Carlos Moedas, who has not yet confirmed his candidacy for the presidency of the executive in the municipal elections on 12 October, also said he was available to “take on costs, if necessary”, even if he was paid. “I told the minister that she could count on me for the work of a mayor, which is to be on the streets and also have this knowledge of the streets. She is the sovereign minister in relation to security in the country, but I was really pleased that there was an understanding about what Lisbon is today, and Lisbon has this sense, of this city that is open, but it has to be safe, and that is very important for all of us”, he stressed. The meeting also addressed the issue of regulations for night guards, an idea launched by the Lisbon City Council that consists of having 56 night guards in the city, in order to guarantee “nighttime security for many people”. The executive will move forward with the “regulation and training” of those who will perform the function.

CCTV

Also addressed at the meeting was the issue of the video protection project in the city and “an acceleration of this project”, according to Carlos Moedas, who recalled the existence of 32 cameras in Cais do Sodré and another 30 in Campo das Cebolas, “which are just waiting for a connection”.

Carlos Moedas also said that he had spoken to the minister about installing “temporary cameras on certain streets”, recalling that the video surveillance plan in the city of Lisbon “has been in place since 2009” and, at the time, there were streets that were not dangerous and that today it makes sense to have surveillance.

One area of ​​the city where the mayor defended the need for video surveillance is Martim Moniz, considering it “without a doubt one of the priority areas that was not included, in a certain way, in the initial design”.

“Martim Moniz, the entire part of Avenida da Liberdade, this entire area is important. (…) And, even if they are not fixed cameras, they can be temporary cameras, as happens today, when there is a football match and there are cameras that are temporarily installed”, he emphasized.

Regarding the old intention to reinforce the powers of the Municipal Police, Carlos Moedas said that Maria Lúcia Amaral “understands the need for the Municipal Police, which is made up of the PSP, to be able to make arrests without being a criminal police agency”.

Carlos Moedas even asked the previous MAI to install video surveillance in 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.