The design of the site undertaken by Claire Kellock, started in November 2014, as it became apparent that the demand for SCA's services had extended beyond the Algarve. In fact enquiries are regularly received from overseas from people who have visited Portugal as those planning to move or invest here. Following discussions with the national police authorities in Lisbon, it was therefore decided to embark on a new site with some of the input being provided by them.

The new SCP site follows the same basic design of the SCA site but incorporates some new important features.

Given the large increase in the number of cybercrime enquiries it was decided to launch a cybercrime section divided into a number of pages, including a Cyber security alert page. This page is updated daily where necessary and shows samples of threats and attacks that people have received in Portugal and have brought to our attention as well as global attacks that may affect the country. We are grateful to Jim Litchko, a computer security analyst for his expert help in creating this facility.

Another new feature is a "For tourist" page. Although Portugal is one of the safest places to visit in Europe, it is important it remains so. Crime prevention tips are in seven languages at present and it is hoped to include Russian shortly.

We have also added a section on safety advice for children named "Keeping Kids Safe", as well as the most comprehensive emergency contacts and hot-line contacts list available. The latter includes "click-through" contacts to the main support organizations in Portugal dealing with health, safety, and social services.

Following discussions, with the Economic and Food Safety Authority (ASAE) they are also featured in the police section on the website together with the GNR, PSP, SEF and the Judicial Police. We are grateful for the assistance and input received from these organizations.

The civil protection area on the website has been expanded from that available on the SCA site with a particular focus on forest fire prevention, given the risk this poses in many parts of the country.

With over 70 crime prevention downloads, it is hoped that the new site will help further enhance awareness of crime prevention, public safety and cyber security within all communities, supplementing the work of the various law enforcement agencies.  

These are only some of the new features and more details can be found by visiting the site at  

The current Safe Communities Algarve website www.safecommunitiesalgarve.com will be retained in order to serve the local community in the region.

In its recently produced report for 2015 the WEF Travel and Tourism Competiveness Report rates Portugal as 10th out of 141 countries in terms impact of crime and violence on the cost to businesses. (One being the lowest cost and 141 place being the highest cost to businesses).

The report rates each country individually covers four sub-indexes, 14 pillars, and 90 individual indicators, distributed among the different pillars these range from the environment, trade, price competitiveness, employment, social conditions etc. 

Closely aligned to this is the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) - Economic Impact of Travel and Tourism summary report for 2015, which concludes that in the last two years the world has been facing geopolitical tensions from the Middle East and Ukraine to South-East Asia, growing terrorism threats and fear of the spread of global pandemics. Should they persist, these global challenges could have significant further repercussions on the Travel and tourism industry, as they touch on the pre-condition for the sector to grow and develop-the ability of people to travel safely.

To date, the effect of such events on travel & tourism has been mixed. While some countries have witnessed significant decreases in the number of international visitors, other destinations have remained unaffected.

Interestingly, it is notable that the travel and tourism sector has actually continued to grow over these past years and according to the Portugal study report by the WTTC all economic factors within the industry are forecast to grow this year. The WTTC report is good news for Portugal.

Noteworthy in the WEF report is that of the 19 factors for each country, Portugal's highest rating is for Safety and Security, compared for instance with "International Openness" where it is placed 72nd and Health and Hygiene at 35th place.

Apart from the crime impacting on business costs, the report rates the "reliability of the Police Service, placing Portugal in 29th place; the most reliable police service being Finland followed by New Zealand. The UK is rated 26th place, Spain 20th and France 30th.

We have become aware of at least three distraction crimes (there are unconfirmed reports of more) that have taken place in Aldi Supermarket car parks at their, Almancil, Lagoa and Lagos, branches, the latest being on 4th June.

The typical modus operandi is for people to be approached when they are close to, or about to load their shopping into their car, by a person asking for directions. Whist trying to help (distracted) another person steals property from the basket or the car. In these cases it was handbags. Some of these cases have been reported to the police and Safe Communities Algarve has requested this be taken up with Aldi management.

This is not the only distraction technique used. In another case a person found that his tyre was deflated iat a car park at Maxmat, and on being offered help, another person stole his belongings.

Although not a distraction crime, there is another report on our Facebook page of a person whose shopping trolley was stolen from inside a Aldi store, whilst he visited the toilet.

Please therefore be aware that these crimes are taking place and take extra precautions in car parks that you do not lose site of your goods, particular at Aldi branches.

Lastly I thank people for bringing this to our attention. If you do become a victim please report this to police, so that hopefully those involved can be brought to justice.

Our AGM was held on 26th May 2015. Apart from routine business, we held elections for two places: one on the Management Board previously held by Dan Birch and the other on the Fiscal Council, previously held by Natasha Gilbertson ( now Natasha Birch). Following their recent marriage both had to give up their duties due to their flourishing photographic business. The meeting thanked them for their work and wished them all the best for the future.

Replacing Natasha is Dina Filipe.  Dina was born in Sydney Australia and commenced hereducation there. On moving to Portugal she spent four years in Loule High School, where she was able to perfect the Portuguese language. In 2012 she was part of a team responsible for the creation and monitoring of a Personal Emergency Response System known as PERS. This worked involved interaction with the emergency services following which she was responsible for the team responsible for marketing. In 2014 she created her own business in villa rentals and bilingual help. Dina provides valuable voluntary assistance to SCA in translation services and communications.

Replacing Dan is Paula Santos. Paula works for EuroFinesco in Guia. She is very closely involved in local community work and has devoted much time to this. She has already helped the Association in translation work and communication with Government and will become part of our Fiscal Council.

My thanks to both for volunteering to help  our association.

The GNR arrested during the night of June 5, in the areas of Elvas, Ferreira do Alentejo and Grândola, six men for conspiracy crimes and robbery.

 
Six house search warrants were executed and vehicles,silver jewellery, 720 euros in cash, 32 kilos of tobacco and 147 smartphones, were seized. The arrested persons, aged 21 and 41, were part of an organization that undertook robberies targeted at commercial / industrial establishments, farms, houses and jewellers and were carried out mainly at night time. It is reported that they had taken part in around 10 robberies over the last four months.

Most of the detainees have criminal records, for the crimes of conspiracy, theft and armed robbery, one of whom was deported from the country in 2011. This investigation, which lasted four months and ended with the arrests was conducted by the GNR Criminal Section of the Operations Research Group of the Special Intervention Unit (IU), which was coordinated by the Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) in Lisbon. 

Fifty GNR soldiers participated in the operation including the Territorial Commands of Setúbal and Portalegre. Of the six arrested, five were held in custody.
 

A young man from S. Paulo, Brazil, was arrested by the PSP Metropolitan Police District on 8th June at Lisbon airport with 59 cocaine packages being carried inside his body. 

He was taken to hospital, where he underwent surgery for removal of the product and is reported to be in a stable condition.

According to the PSP, the suspect came from S. Paul and was en-route to Amsterdam via Brussels. The PSP seized 59 packages of cocaine, totalling 1024.51 grams, a further package with 113.07 grams of cocaine, $ 1,000, and a mobile phone.
 

It was reported on 4th June that two men aged 20 and 50 years were arrested by the GNR for carrying out a burglary at a house in Sitio do Grao, Moncarapacho.

The thieves were seen entering the property and the GNR alerted. They responded quickly and the thieves were caught close to the property. A total of 935 Euros in cash and a quantity of cigarettes believed stolen from the property were recovered.

One of the thieves has a previous record for drug trafficking.