The government is to change the archaic laws covering the use of video surveillance so that law enforcement can use equipment to fight crime and use recordings as evidence.
Isabel Oneto, Deputy Secretary of State and Home Affairs, announced today that "We are working on the amendment of the law of video surveillance, precisely in order to allow security forces and services to have access to video surveillance in a broader way and will change the law that regulates video surveillance to increase the access of security forces to this means of crime prevention.”
The secretary of state was attending a presentation of a video surveillance system set up in the municipality of Amadora where 103 CCTV cameras have been in operation since May 11th.
She explained that at the moment the security forces are hampered as the regulations currently in force carry ‘rights, freedoms and guarantees’ for citizens that are not helpful when fighting crime.
For Oneto, the legislative review should ensure that video surveillance systems have "a crime prevention function" while maintaining citizens' rights.
The forthcoming amendments will create a better balance between privacy and crime prevention, claims the State.
"We believe that our security forces cannot continue to work in the dark and therefore we need to open up the legislation a bit in order to ensure respect for fundamental rights, freedoms and guarantees: we need to seek a balance in these matters."
The president of Amadora council, Carla Tavares, said the investment in the CCTV system somehow strengthened the city and gave the population a sense of security as well as being an important working tool for the Public Security Police working locally."
The council invested around €900,000 in a fibre-optic network and a further €1 million in the installation of 103 video surveillance cameras in several areas of the municipality with image recording but no sound capture.