The municipality is still awaiting a similar decision in the area under the PSP’s jurisdiction, the mayor said.

The order published in the Diário da República, signed by the Secretary of State for Internal Administration, Telmo Correia, authorises “the installation and use of a video monitoring system in Lagos”.

However, the mayor, Hugo Pereira, clarified to the Lusa news agency that he can only launch a tender to acquire the necessary materials once the system for the area under the PSP’s responsibility is authorised as well.

“Video surveillance in the municipality has two parts, there is one part under the jurisdiction of the GNR, which is the one for which authorization was published today in the Official Gazette, which is the smaller one, in terms of the number of cameras, and then there is the other part which is in the area under the jurisdiction of the PSP, which is the one with the most cameras, and that is still awaiting publication,” said the mayor. The mayor of the Algarve municipality said that the municipality has “everything prepared in terms of power connection points and 5G communications” and the tender procedure for the acquisition of video surveillance cameras, materials for observation rooms and support equipment is already “underway”, but stressed that the tender can only be launched when the second authorisation is published.

Need for authorisation

“We cannot put the tender out there without having the effective authorisation from both video monitoring areas,” he justified, stressing that each security force will be responsible for controlling its area of ​​jurisdiction.

When asked about the municipality’s expectations regarding the publication of the second authorisation for video monitoring, Hugo Pereira replied that, “if all goes well, by the end of the month,” the PSP's area of jurisdiction will also obtain authorisation from the Ministry of Internal Administration.

New tender

The Lagos City Council may thus launch “during the month of April” the tender for “the acquisition of all the hardware, software and equipment for video surveillance”, which will be installed “throughout the municipality” and will contribute to strengthening the security of public areas where there are greater population movements and to controlling traffic, argued the mayor of the municipality in the Faro district.

Schools, the entrances and exits of parishes, and the most central urban area or the historic centre are among the areas where the installation of video surveillance cameras is planned, the mayor of Lagos indicated.

Authorized system

The Diário da República published Order No. 3434/2026, which authorizes the installation and use of a video surveillance system "composed of 23 cameras, in Lagos, under the terms proposed in the memorandum of the National Republican Guard, dated 3 November 2025, and in accordance with the recommendations issued by the National Data Protection Commission in opinion No. 2026/2, dated 6 January 2026".

The order states that the authorisation is given "for a period of three years, starting from the date of publication", which may be renewed "up to 60 days before the expiry date".

Lagos thus takes another step towards becoming the sixth municipality in the Algarve to have video surveillance, a system already in place in Olhão, Portimão, Faro, Albufeira and Loulé.