Porto’s CCTV System Fails Courts, Leaving Cases Delayed and Crime Unchecked

The promise of an always-watchful camera network in Porto is colliding with an inconvenient reality: courts cannot read the footage they receive. While clocks in the police command keep ticking, case files at the courthouse sit idle for about eight months waiting for technicians who can bridge a stubborn gap between two public computer systems.

Snapshot of the Stalemate

• 79 cameras installed downtown are still considered Phase 1.

• The Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) says it needs police help every time video is requested.

• 117 extra units—already paid for—are stacked in warehouses, blocked by a pending opinion from the Data Protection Authority (CNPD).

• Merchants complain of night-time vandalism while City Hall and the Ministry of Internal Administration negotiate a fix.

Why Residents Should Care

For people living or working in Porto, the impasse means fewer swift convictions, less deterrence against property crime, and continued pressure on the Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) to patrol on foot instead of relying on digital eyes. Local associations report a rise in shop-window break-ins and drug-related disorder, especially in the early hours. In other words, a camera system that cost taxpayers millions is—at least for now—no faster than a passer-by’s mobile phone.

Anatomy of a Technical Misfit

According to DIAP prosecutor Maria Teresa Tomé, the surveillance recordings arrive on storage devices that the court’s legacy hardware cannot open. The problem is not software licences or passwords but “plain **incompatibility of connectors, codecs and processing power,” she told the Municipal Security Council last week. Until replacement workstations arrive—no delivery date has been made public—prosecutors must phone the PSP, whose own technicians transcode the material, sometimes overnight, before evidence can be viewed in the courtroom.

Investigations on Hold

Superintendent Rui Mendes of the PSP estimates that roughly 200 inquiries—mostly burglaries, assaults and pickpocketing—have been prolonged since mid-2024 because video could not be reviewed on time. Defence lawyers exploit the delay to question the freshness of memories and the chain of custody. One notorious case involving a string of ATM skimmers has been adjourned three times, Mendes confirmed, “simply because the footage sits on a disk nobody in the court can plug in.”

Expanding the Network—While Phase 1 Still Stumbles

City Hall insists the second rollout of €1.9 M worth of cameras, contracted to Soltráfego, will move ahead once the CNPD finalises its privacy opinion. Yet Mayor Rui Moreira concedes that pushing ahead without fixing Phase 1 would be “pouring water into a leaking bucket.” A third wave, destined for Ramalde, remains on the drawing board with no budget attached.

Who Pays for the Upgrade?

Not a single line item in the 2026 municipal budget specifically earmarks funds for court hardware modernisation. The Ministry of Justice says tribunals are financed separately and that Porto must file a request through the national IT authority. Meanwhile, DIAP’s stop-gap solution—borrowing PSP laptops and external drives—carries its own price: police officers earn overtime while acting as ad-hoc system administrators.

Voices from the Street

Porto’s Aliados Retail Council warns that repeated postponements erode confidence among small businesses. “Every smashed window costs us more than this citywide system is saving,” spokesperson Susana Carvalho argues. Residents’ groups from Campanhã to Asprela echo the concern, noting that drug dealing has migrated to side streets where Phase 2 cameras were supposed to be operational by now.

Data Protection: Necessary Brake or Bureaucratic Gridlock?

The CNPD contends that additional scrutiny is vital because facial recognition algorithms could be activated in the future. Privacy lawyer André Ferreira points out that Europe’s new AI Act will likely make certification even tougher: “Porto is not the only city discovering that buying cameras is easy; running them legally is the hard part.”

What Happens Next

City Hall and DIAP technicians are testing a cloud-based bridge that could bypass outdated courtroom PCs altogether. If pilot trials succeed, prosecutors would stream footage in a secured environment by spring. Still, hardware replacements will be needed eventually. Until then, residents may notice more blue-uniform patrols—an analogue patch for a digital problem.

Key Takeaways for Porto Residents

The city’s much-touted CCTV grid is fully functional from a policing standpoint but largely unusable in court.

A simple hardware mismatch—not hacking, not privacy law—causes the eight-month backlog.

Expansion plans costing €1.9 M are stalled while Phase 1 remains only partially effective.

Shopkeepers and neighbourhood groups want a timeline; none has been given.

Short-term relief may come from a cloud solution, but long-term credibility hinges on replacing outdated courtroom computers.

Porto’s cameras keep rolling, yet justice still waits for the right plug adapter.