From now on, any Angolan civil society that wants to resort to the installation of a video surveillance system will have to ask for the approval of the General Command of the National Police, as well as the positive opinion of the Data Protection Agency, reveals the New Journal.
According to what has been reported, these new rules are defined in the modernization of the Video Surveillance Law Regulation, approved by the President of the Republic through the Order No. 308/21, and where these measures apply to the State Intelligence and Security Services (SINSE), Defense, Public Security and Internal Order Bodies of the Central and Local State Administration, as well as financial and banking institutions, public or private companies, without forgetting also the concessionaire entities or entities responsible for the management of spaces and public transport, nature reserves and roads, or administrative entities of national parks.
According to the Angolan newspaper, all license attributions are now the responsibility of the National Police, giving freedom to that same public body to carry out inspection visits and also the obligation to transfer the images or sounds captured to the criminal police bodies or the judicial authorities “whenever necessary”.
BUT: CISP controls over 1.200 video surveillance cameras across the country
The same presidential dispatch informs that authorization for the installation of video surveillance systems must be requested through an application addressed to the holder of the Ministerial Department Responsible for Public Security and Internal Order and submitted to the Provincial Command of the National Police of Angola. The document also emphasizes that the instruction of the process will then be carried out within 13 working days, after which the process must be sent to the competent body for the authorization decision.
In case of approval of the license for the installation of video surveillance systems, a license is issued, which will be subject to the payment of fees to be established by joint executive decree of the ministers responsible for Public Security and Internal Order, as well as for Public Finance, and which may be revoked.
It should be noted that the our editorial office had already informed, in the month of October, that national citizens could already request, from the police units in the respective area, authorization for the installation of video surveillance cameras, in the light of the Regulation of the Video Surveillance Law, approved by the Council of Ministers.
That Regulation establishes the criteria and technical procedures to be taken into account when granting authorization for the installation and use of video surveillance systems, as well as for safeguarding the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, namely the right to image, to the reservation of intimacy, private life and the guarantee of the right to access personal data and information held by the State.
