There has been a dramatic increase in the number of tourists that have been robbed on the streets of Lisbon with an average of 370 a month registering incidents with local police.
This number of robberies has risen 25.8% this January to April compared to the same period last year.
Baixa, Bairro Alto, Cais do Sodre and Alfama are the worst hit areas with 1,478 robberies logged by police to the end of April this year.
Last year, the capital received 3.5 million tourists, an increase of 42% compared to 2.5 million foreign visitors in 2011, with tourists reporting that they felt safe in the capital.
The police say that, unsurprisingly, "more thefts are happening in areas of the greatest accumulation of tourists, including Santa Maria Maior e Misericórdia, Baixa de Lisboa, Bairro Alto, Cais do Sodré and Alfama."
According to Deputy Commissioner Hugo Abreu, spokesman for the Metropolitan Command of the PSP in Lisbon, the increase registered in the first four months of the year has not yet led to a strengthening of police street teams dedicated to catching pickpockets.
"We have the criminal investigation teams, with some in plain clothes walking the streets continuously in the areas most frequented by pickpockets," adding that pickpockets are mixing in queues for buses and trolley cars and are usually working in pairs. Women, especially Romanians, are becoming experts in pickpocketing. Some pretend to be tourists and open maps to act as cover while they queue.
Despite this concerning increase, tourists consider Lisbon a quiet and safe city as in a survey on security, undertaken last summer by the local tourism authority, 96% of foreign tourists said they felt safe in the Portuguese capital with 75% saying they felt confident in local policing.
