Castelló d’Empúries has launched 77 video surveillance cameras – 12 of them license plate readers – that “shield” the main accesses and conflict points of the old town and Empuriabrava.
The work, which cost around 200,000 euros, includes municipal facilities (such as the Town Hall, the pavilion and the football field), but also the entrance roundabouts and nightlife areas. The government team celebrates its action, which has been pending for months, and announces that it is already studying expanding it. The desire is to incorporate more cameras to install in other points such as the Passeig Marítim.
The contract to award the cameras was made in December 2022 but it was not until a year later (December 2023) when the Video Surveillance Commission authorized the start-up of the Castelló d’Empúries camera circuit. In the last five months, the different departments involved have worked around the clock to put them into operation and now the 77 cameras are fully operational.
The system, which has cost about 200,000 euros, has a command room at the Local Police headquarters from which the different devices are controlled in real time. Of the 77 devices, 12 are license plate reading cameras that allow us to detect if any suspicious vehicle or vehicle with a pending warrant enters the municipality. “We are pioneers in the region,” says the mayor of the municipality, Anna Massot.
In this sense, Massot says that the system will allow them to “further increase security, minimize risky behavior and crimes.” The head of the Local Police, Youssef Gharj, says that the cameras will make police work “easier” and that, in fact, they have already made it possible to collaborate with investigations related to some criminal acts.
The City Council is working to expand the system with new cameras. The desire is to act at other points that were not such a priority or where license plate reading cameras have been installed to “complement” the service. One of the places where they plan to stand is the Paseo Marítimo or Fages de Climent Avenue.
