“At least during this term, video surveillance will not advance” in Évora, said the mayor, Carlos Pinto de Sá.

This city council has been studying the installation of video surveillance on some streets in the historic centre for about two years.

Now the proposal has been rejected, with votes in favour from the two elected members of the CDU, against the two from the PSD and the abstention of the two councillors from the PS and another from the Movimento Cuidar de Évora (MCE), with the casting vote of the president being valid.

Noting that the CDU administration has “always been sceptical about video surveillance”, the mayor argued that “Évora is one of the safest cities in the country” and that in the city “crime levels are very low”.

“Therefore, there is no objective data that justifies, from a crime perspective, in our view, the need to move towards video monitoring”, he highlighted, defending community policing as an alternative.

Pinto de Sá said that the installation of video surveillance in “half a dozen streets and areas” in the historic centre implied “an initial investment of around 740 thousand euros” and “an annual maintenance cost of more than 50 thousand euros”.

“Weighing up the effectiveness and costs, the cost-benefit ratio, in our view, is not favourable and, therefore, we understand that it is not worth moving forward”, he highlighted, adding that “it is up to the Central Administration to guarantee the funds for security issues”.