Over the past two years, the Angolan executive has invested heavily in the installation of electronic devices on public roads, mainly in Luanda, with a population index of up to seven million inhabitants, largely due to the various robberies that have been seen.
Based on these same crimes, and where many of which were clarified with the use of video surveillance cameras, it has demanded from the competent police authorities increasingly efficient measures to contain and discourage this type of criminal action in the arteries of society.
Therefore, video surveillance cameras are extremely important and fundamental for the monitoring service of the defense and security forces of our country, although their installation, on public roads, still creates “discomfort” to some citizens.
Speaking of their usefulness, video surveillance cameras monitor the movement of citizens and vehicles, help locate missing and outlaws, and often help identify the perpetrators of car thefts and robberies.
In Angola, official statistics indicate that there are currently more than 1.200 video surveillance cameras in three provinces: Luanda, Benguela and Huambo, all in charge of the Integrated Center for Public Security (CISP), where in the country's capital it controls 955 cameras, some with lenses ranging from three to four kilometers.
All these video surveillance cameras are installed at various strategic points in the capital city, based on the Law No. 1/20, of 22 January (Law on Video Surveillance), which establishes the legal regime for the authorization, installation and use of a surveillance system by video cameras for the capture, recording and treatment of image and sound.
BUT: Citizens can now request installation of video surveillance cameras
The diploma establishes that the chambers must be installed to protect people and property, defense and security of the State, crime prevention and maintenance of public order, in addition to the assistance of criminal police bodies.
One of the objectives is that with these instruments to ensure the protection of buildings and installations of public institutions, prevention and repression of criminal offences, aid in criminal investigation, prevention and repression of road traffic offences.
The Video Surveillance System is also aimed at preventing and repressing terrorist acts, detecting fires in public places, detecting damage caused by natural phenomena, situations of violation of national borders, among other purposes.
In practice, the scope of application of this law is excluded from cases where image and sound collection is carried out in strictly private or reserved places.
Thus, it is prohibited to install video, aiming at the collection of images or sounds with discriminatory purposes of any nature or for the exposure of people's intimate lives.
According to the respective law, the installation and use of the Video Surveillance System must be carried out by the State's defense, intelligence and security, security and internal order bodies, bodies of the State's Central and Local Administration.
