The head of the Algarve’s traders association, ACRAL, has asked for an urgent discussion with Olhão police commander Jorge Domingues to "share and verify the feasibility of a set of ideas from the association to fight and reduce the wave of robberies and incidents of vandalism in the commercial streets of the historic centre."
The president of the association of traders, Álvaro Viegas, expressed his concerns to commander Domingues over “recent events recorded in the commercial downtown Olhão, where many shops have been vandalised and robbed."
For Viegas, these events constitute a threat that “seriously harms shopkeepers, as well as the image of Olhão municipality itself.”
Álvaro Viegas has scheduled a meeting to analyse and propose solutions that are likely to help solve the problem, including night patrols - the PCP police station being only a few hundred metres from the shopping area..
Olhão locals are becoming used to the sound of breaking glass in the early hours and the sight of glass repair service vans in the morning hours as shopkeepers dig deep to pay for replacement plate glass windows, doors that that have been kicked in or forced, and replacement stock.
Olhão had a reputation of being the Algarve’s poorest city with drug and alcohol-fuelled crime the norm. The inflow of foreign owners has done much to improve the look of the city in its historic area but the underlying social problems remain with brightly lit shops in empty streets presenting tempting opportunities in the early hours.
Street crime is much reduced however, despite the tempting influx of summertime tourists, but the need for easy money remains and until those responsible are caught, the shopkeepers will continue to bear the brunt.
