Crime in Lisbon drops sharply in 2024

The decline was particularly pronounced in Lisbon municipality, with a 10.41% decrease in violent crime and a 12.6% drop in general crime.

Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

The Metropolitan Command of Lisbon (Cometlis) of the Public Security Police (PSP) has reported a 1.4% reduction in violent and serious crime within its jurisdiction in 2024 compared to the previous year, while general crime dropped by 8.9%.

The Cometlis area includes the municipalities of Lisbon, Amadora, Oeiras, and Odivelas, as well as urban areas in Cascais, Loures, Sintra, Torres Vedras, and Vila Franca de Xira.

The decline in violent crime was particularly pronounced in Lisbon, with a 10.41% decrease, compared to a 1.4% reduction across the broader Cometlis region. General crime in Lisbon also saw a significant decline, dropping by 12.6%.

The figures comes from a provisional report by the Public Security Police (PSP) and represent the second-largest drop in criminal activity in the last 10 years.

Additionally, 2024 was the third year with the fewest crimes in the capital over the past decade, only surpassed by the years during the pandemic.

The report also revealed that cyber fraud is the most reported crime by Lisbon residents, followed by theft and scams. Crimes such as domestic violence and physical assault occupy the sixth and seventh places, respectively, in the Top 10 ranking.

However, regarding the evolution of crime in each Lisbon parish, the report showed a significant increase in crime numbers in the Martim Moniz area: 5,994 crimes were reported in 2023, the highest number in 10 years.

Rui Costa, commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the PSP in Lisbon, emphasized in an interview with RTP that these reductions are “positive” but warned that they are not a reason for complacency.

“There are phenomena in Lisbon and its surrounding municipalities that cause us concern, such as drug trafficking, crimes committed with bladed weapons, and itinerant crime,” Costa noted.

Mayor Carlos Moedas Reacts to Crime Figures

One person who wasn’t convinced about the figures was… Lisbon’s Mayor Carlos Moedas, from the centre-right PSD party, who urged caution, noting the need to address specific incidents and trends that remain troubling.

The Mayor, who has often stressed crime as a central issue in the capital, referenced recent violent incidents, including three alleged rapes reported in a single week and a triple homicide in Santa Apolónia last year.

While acknowledging the decline in overall crime, he stressed that “the way crimes are being committed is more violent than before.”

“It’s not normal to have armed robberies for a watch or incidents like these rapes,” Moedas said, emphasizing that the level of violence in crimes today is “completely different from five years ago.”

He also noted that unreported crimes might skew perceptions. “There are crimes that don’t make it into the statistics because they aren’t reported to the police,” Moedas stated, adding that some business owners on Avenida da Liberdade feel unsafe at night.

Second-Largest Crime Reduction in a Decade

The Diário de Notícias highlighted that the crime reduction in Lisbon was the second-largest in the past ten years, surpassed only by the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.

In November, during the 157th anniversary celebration of Cometlis, Commander Luís Elias noted that the statistics did not align with the “sense of insecurity” often amplified by social media and public discourse.

“The recorded crime data does not match the perception of insecurity being spread in certain sectors of public opinion,” Elias said at the time.

Cometlis, the largest PSP command in Portugal, has approximately 6,800 officers responsible for the safety of around 2.5 million residents daily.

Three rapes in a week

Meanwhile, the press reported that a 61-year-old man was arrested by the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) on suspicion of raping a 24-year-old woman with cognitive impairment in the early hours of Sunday in Lisbon’s Martim Moniz area.

The suspect, described as a foreign national of Indian origin, is currently being held in preventive custody and will face his first judicial hearing on Monday.

The victim, who had run away from the care institution where she was residing, was reportedly spending the night on the streets when the suspect approached her.

According to authorities, the man proposed she spend the night at a hostel on Rua do Benformoso, near Martim Moniz, which she accepted to avoid sleeping outdoors.

The assault allegedly took place inside a rented room at the hostel. Later that morning, a taxi driver passing through Rua do Benformoso found the woman lying on the ground in distress and called emergency services.

This incident marks the third reported case of alleged rape in Lisbon within the past week.

On January 19, an Erasmus student in Portugal claimed she was assaulted by two or three men near Escadinha da Saúde, after being dropped off by a ride-hailing service.

On the same night, a French woman accused a ride-hailing driver of rape in the same area.

In Sunday’s case, the PJ stated that initial interactions between the victim and suspect were consensual but later escalated into violence when the suspect’s behavior turned aggressive, prompting the woman to resist.