An international security expert and former INTERPOL consultant has been praised by the GNR police for his efforts to increase crime prevention awareness among residents in the Algarve.
Colonel Francisco Sousa from the GNR headquarters told the Algarve Resident this week that the police force had given its full backing to the work developed by David Thomas in its Safe Communities Algarve platform, a dedicated online crime prevention support and information service.
David Thomas said: “Safe Communities Algarve aims to reflect the work that the government is already taking to help keep the Algarve a safe place to live.”
The platform aims to assist the authorities to provide crime prevention advice to residents and visitors to the Algarve as well as help them communicate details of the Secure Residence Programme (SRP), how to join the scheme and where to obtain information.
Colonel Sousa said that the need to create the SRP became evident following a number of burglaries that had occurred in dispersed areas of the Algarve region.
The aim of the programme is to provide a faster means of response to emergencies by the GNR through using maps, GPS coordinates and through the numbering of households in isolated villages.
He said: “Development of the programme by the GNR is continuous, particularly in what concerns increasing its human and operational resources and engagement with residents.”
Colonel Sousa concluded by saying that a better preventative and reactive capacity to respond to eventual crimes against people and property was vital.
“Thus,” he said, “David Thomas’s efforts and enthusiasm when informing foreign residents about the SRP is an excellent contribution.”
