Citing the 2023 Annual Internal Security Report (RASI), the former minister said that “there were 45,388 fewer crimes reported than in 2003. And 4,408 fewer crimes than in 2013”.

José Luís Carneiro was speaking at the opening of the first initiative organized by the civic movement Porto com Porto, chaired by António Araújo, who has been touted as a potential candidate for the Porto City Council.

The former socialist minister was invited to address the issue of Security, which is considered one of the areas of greatest concern to the people of Porto, along with Mobility and Urban Planning.

José Luís Carneiro said that in relation to the district of Porto it is also possible to see “a similar picture” to the national one.

“In 2003, there were 68,513 reported crimes. In 2013, there were 62,668, that is, 5,845 fewer than ten years earlier. In 2023, there were 55,730 reported crimes. That is, 6,938 fewer reported crimes than in 2013. Therefore: in the district of Porto there were 12,783 fewer reported crimes than twenty years earlier. And 6,938 fewer than ten years earlier”, he pointed out.

He stated that the same is true of the municipality of Porto, which continues to be “a safe municipality”.

The figures indicate that in 2023, there were “fewer reported crimes than in 2013 and fewer than in 2003. In 2003, there were 17,463 reported crimes. In 2013, there were 15,638. In 2023, there will be 14,552. In other words: in 2023, in the municipality of Porto, there were 2,911 fewer crimes than in 2003. There were 1,086 fewer crimes than in 2013”, he said.

“These figures are even more surprising if we take into account that the country, the district and the municipality of Porto have seen a very significant increase in the number of tourists, which has meant a greater flow of tourists into the city, into our public spaces, our restaurants, our hotels and our beaches”, he highlighted.

“Let us look at these figures for the Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP): in 2013, there were 3.3 million overnight stays in hotels; in 2023, eight million. In the municipality of Porto, there were two million overnight stays in 2013 and 5.9 million in 2023 (INE). It clearly shows the demands placed on different entities, public, social and private, at different levels of decision-making”, he added.

The same happened, he argued, with “the growth in the number of immigrants who today respond to the needs of the economic fabric, demographic rejuvenation and the sustainability of the social functions of the State”.

In 2011, they represented 3.20% of the population (6,993 foreigners out of a total of 230,596 residents of Porto), in 2021, they represented 8.10% of the population (14,497 foreigners out of a total of 217,299 residents of Porto).

Road safety

With regard to road safety, he said that around 70% of all victims and 75% of accidents occurred on the road network under municipal management.

Around 57% of the accidents recorded in the city of Porto occurred on just twenty roads, including the Via de Cintura Interna (114, 21.9%), Circunvalação (110, 32.7%), Avenida da AEP (26, 35.2%) and Boavista (25, 35.2%).

Therefore, “addressing road safety and ensuring safe mobility on these roads must continue to be a priority”.

António Luís Carneiro also argued that addressing safety requires the adoption of a global, systemic, multidimensional and integrated political perspective, designed and implemented with shared and reinforced cooperation at various levels of governance.

Therefore, he recalled, “between 2018 and 2023, we approved and are currently being implemented and developed three integrated strategies that aim to promote both structural security and protective security: the Integrated Preventive Civil Protection Strategy (EIPCP), the Integrated Urban Security Strategy (EISU) and the Integrated National Road Safety Strategy (EISR – Vision Zero)”.

Essentially, “it is about promoting a more complete citizenship. Better prepared to face civil protection and road safety risks, but also to diagnose and act on the causes of social disruption and crime”, he added.